A2 coursework - documentary research

By watching the documentary on tourettes it helped me further understand the conventions of documentaries. During the course of the documentary they have lots of examples of interviews. All of these involve just one person to give the film a personal feel. The camera is usually positioned straight in front of the person being interviewed.










Camera shots and angles
Editing
Voice over
Interviews
Location sound recording (diegetic sounds)
Non-diegetic musicStructure (what comes where in the documentary and why)
Archive footage (footage taken in the past).

Shooting Schedule

Available filming time - tuesday pm , wednesday am , thursday am

Classroom scene - tuesday - lessons 5 & 6
Uploading footage - wednesday - lesson 1
corridor scene - wednesday - lesson 2
corridor scene - thursday - lesson 3
uploading footage - thursday - lesson 4
corridor scene - tuesday - lesson 5
uploading footage - tuesday - lesson 6
edititng footage shot so far - wednesday- lessons 1 & 2
Bedroom and Bathroom scene - thursday - lessons 3 & 4
tuesday uploading footage -tuesday - lessons 5 & 6
editing - wednesday - lessons 1 & 2
Recording sound - thursday - lesson 3
uploading sound thursday - lesson 4
General editing and checking - Any available lessons

Shot List

Scene where Melvin gets up was a high angle shot which we intend to last 7-8 seconds.
Melvin in bathroom is an over the shoulder shot which should last 7 seconds.
Classroom scene is hopefully an over the shoulder shot to last 30 seconds.
Corridor scene uses mid shots using 2 cameras lasting 20 seconds.
Girl scene starts with a long shot moving to a mid shot hopefully lasting 15 seconds.

Storyboard 2

Storyboard 1

This is the original storyboard that i drew up to aid in the
production of our two minute film.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

One thing in particular i learnt from our preliminary task was that if we spend more time planning it would be easier for us when we eventually came to filming our piece. For example, when we did the preliminary task we didn't do things like make a script which for this final piece we found to be vital if it was to be a success. A schedule was also devised so before we went into each lesson we knew what we had to do. This came about because when we did the preliminary task sometimes in lessons we didn't do alot because before hand we didn't know what we had to do that lesson. At the start of the preliminary task we only had one idea of what the footage was going to include. Also we produced a script and a camera angles plan to further aid our piece. This helped us because when we came to film it we knew exactly where the camera had to be so we could complete our filming quicker allowing more time for editing etc. Overall i think i have learnt most of all that a good preperation is key to a successful film.

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

There are many things i have learnt about technologies while making this film. I learnt a lot more about the editing program adobe premier. In fact i had never heard of the program before i used it in this project. By using it during my editing process i learnt that many editing techniques are easily achieved. The main thing i learnt was how to add music to clips. I didn't know you could stretch the music so it plays over longer distances in your film. We used this particular technique to great effect in our two minute film. Another piece of equipment i learnt how to use was the sound recorder and microphone. We had to record a voiceover to go over the top of our film so i had to use the sound/voice recorder. I learnt how to record a clip and then replay it to see how it sounded and as we kept changing the script this function became an integral part of recording the piece. I do know how to use the internet!!! but i had never heard of a site called freeplayermusic which was the website where we got our music from. We had to choose music from that website as it is all copyright free which is good as its the only type of music we could use!. After hours of careful attention and after sifting through thousands of tracks we found one that was suitable for our piece. We then copied it onto a memory stick and put it onto the computer that the video was saved on. Also i had never transferred music from a website onto another computer via a memory stick so that was something new i learnt about technologies from doing this project. Another thing i learnt about technologies is to do with adobe premier. I learnt that you can add text to the top of a video. We initial tried that but then found it might be better if we added a voiceover instead. Nonetheless it was still a learning curve for me with regards to the functions on adobe premier. All this will help me in similar projects in the future.

How did you attract/address your audience?

As I stated in the last question our main audience for our film is teenagers. I think that by using things that are familiar to that age group the film doesn't seem alien to them and they can relate to it. Most schools will have kids who people deem to be a 'nerd'. So the people watching it either know a 'nerd' or perhaps are one so that comes into it aswell. The things we use that teenagers can relate to is, a typical girl rejecting a boy trying to talk to them that many boys will understand! This was also backed up by a questionaire we did to test audience feedback. People stated in the questionnaire that they would want to watch the rest of the film based on the opening so we know that we were sucessful in attracting our audience. They felt that they were attracted to our film by the sense of farcity in our film, with the speed camera for example. In our film we used many comedy genre techniques to attract our audience. We used unobtrussive editing in order to give it a normal day/event theme rather than a big flashy hollywood production feel. We also used costume , with the stereotypical 'nerdy' jumper, for comedic effect to try and attract comedy lovers to our film. On the camera angles side of things we mostly used standard mid shots. Although we did use one over the shoulder shot which was meant to show how the main character is alienated from the rest of the class. I think this worked because it showed that the teenagers that were on the shoulder side of the camera were talking and generally socialising but Melvin was on his own, not talking to anyone doing his work. That also added to the comedy of the film which was how we attracted our intended audience.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our main audience we were aiming our film at was teenagers. We felt this was the best group to aim at as it tackled everyday teenage issues and it involved teenage actors. The fact that it was set in a school also canters towards that audience age. Films that are set in a high school or indeed any school are proven to be very popular with teenagers of both genders. Similaly our film is not really aimed at boys or girls even though the majority of the characters are boys. We did a audince feedback questionaire where people watched our film and filled in a sheet of questions about our film. From this we decided that all of the male audience found the two minute film funny and all agreed that it was a comedy. Although most of the female audience also thought it was a comedy there were a few girls who didn't understand the humour and thought it was an action film!!!! This further backs up my point that our film is predominantly for a male audience. But also i think that people who like comedy will obviously like it so they are also part of the intended audience for our film. In the survey we did about our film 75% of people asked said they would watch the film based on the first two minutes which means that as they have seen good comedy in the opening they think they would enjoy the whole film. Our film could also appeal to adults aswell as teenagers. I know this because the adults present when we showed our film were all impressed and also said they would watch the rest of the film based on the opening two minutes.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

To find out how popular teen comedies were at the box office i went to boxofficemojo.com (a website that tells you the earnings made by different films). This would help me understand which media institution makes films similar to ours and makes them a box office hit. So i looked at the high school comedy movies section of the website and found this top 5.

Rank, Film name, studio, total money earnt
1. Superbad - Sony - $121,463,226
2. Porky's - Fox - $111,289,673
3. American Pie - Universal - $102,561,004
4. Mean Girls - Paramount - $86,058,055
5. Ferris Bueller's day off - Paramount - $70,136,369

From this data i thought that the best institution to choose would be paramount. They seem to specialise in comedies and even have 2 dedicated comedy tv channels. As they put so much money into comedy shows and films i think they would be the best institution to distribute my film.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The main social group our piece represents is 'nerds'. Just the appearence of him suggests that he lack confidence in himself and doesn't particulaly cares about his appearence or what other people think of him. Other thinks give him away to be a nerd by the fact that he sleeps in his clothes and also that he always wears the same clothes all the time. Another aspect of the 'nerdy' culture is the music in the background. It is not what you would call 'in' music, again showing a lack of social awareness on behalf of the main character. Also we used props to convey his character. The speed camera for example is not something a usual teenager would do, they wouldn't make a speed camera that doesn't work and further still the definatly wouldn't bring it into school. The speed camera was meant to have a 'homemade' look about it to show that he had produced it himself. The fact that he brings it into school is another example that he doesn't care what other people think or say which is another trait of a nerdish character.

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

We knew that our film was going to be a teen comedy so we did some research on that genre. We realised that in quite a lot of films from that genre use a voice over to acompany the images seen on screen. It can help to convay the personality of the character and portray a certain image to the audience quickly and usualyy they will have an opinion on that character as soon as he speaks. Mean Girls for example is a film that uses that technique. We thought that by using a voice over it would show people what our character thinks of himself and how that differs from what happens in real life. But once that had been done and added to the film we realised that the voice over sounded disjointed. Another teen comedy convention we have used is the school setting. Lots of effective teen comedies have been set in a high school, american pie for example. We thought by setting it in a school it would appeal to people who have previously enjoyed american pie etc. An editing technique usually used in teen comedy films is fast cuts. We have encorperated many fast cuts in our piece to create a frantic, 'lots going on' atmosphere for comedic effect.

Filming Diary

The first piece of filming we did was 'the classroom scene'. When we had finished filming it we put it onto the computer but then realised it had no sound!. That meant we had to re-film it. But that had its problems as when we tried to film it again there was already a class in there. So we had to wait till our next media lesson to film it again and we changed our extra actors because not all of the initial volunteers were available. We the had to brief the new actors in what they had to do and to help them out we did a run-through. This would hopefully eliminate the need to re-shoot the scene.

After that had been filmed the next part we intended to do was the 'speed camera' scene. Finding a box that was the right size for me to hold in my hand was difficult. Eventually, after asking numerous people, one of my old teachers said he had one we could use and luckily it was the right size. We then cut a hole in the back of it and found a suitable piece of wood and put it in the hole we had made. We then had to make it look like a 'nerdy' home made design to fit in with our character. We did this by colouring in all the sides. That posed problems as there was sellotape holding it together and we couldn't colour over it as the colour wouldn't stay on. We resolved that problem by sticking couloured paper on the parts we couldn't colour over and that also saved us considerable time. All that time spent getting and making the 'speed camera' took us to the end of the lesson which meant we had to wait till the next lesson to film that scene.

The time came to film the 'speed camera' scene. We had to then find people willing to participate in our film. Once they had been established they were told what they would have to do. We then set up, for the first time, TWO cameras. They were cleverly placed so neither camera came into the other ones shot. This would prevent us having to re-film it. We then shot it but had monumental problems with people walking into our film. This was because we were filming in a main corridor. When everyone had moved we tried to shoot it again but the bell went uin the middle of it so we stopped filming. Then everyone came out of the classrooms around us. We decided it would be best to wait ten minutes to try and get a whole run through without anyone straying onto our set. The problwem with our next shooting wasn't random people walking past but one of the volunteer actors forgetting what we had told them to do so we decided to change the actors. Once we had done all this we shot it for what we hoped would be the final time! Success, we shot it and it went without a hitch. We then uploaded the footage onto adobe premiere, the program we use to edit our footage. This would let us see just how good/bad the shots were. We knew we were going to edit them later but for now that scene was done and we could move onto a new one.
We knew that the titles are a major part of any film and can set the scene for the rest of the film. We knew this by doing research on the lady in black film. The titles in that are dark and scary which does indeed set the tone for the rest of the film. That is what we were aiming for from our titles. We wanted a wierd combination of colours inside the letters to portray the main charcters wierdness and his uncoordinated personality. As Scott had some experience using photoshop we let him take the lead with the titles. It took him ages to get the right combination of colours. Once he had done that he saved it onto his blog and on a memory stick so it could be easily transferred into our movie.
The next scene we had to shoot was the scene where 'Melvin' gets out of bed. The fact that we needed a bedroom made this one of the most awkward bits to shoot. The original plan was to go to scotts house during the lesson as his house was closest leaving us time to return to lesson before it finished. We got halfway there but found out his Mum was at home ill so we had to abort that plan. We thought we would have to shoot it somewhere other than a bedroom but at the last minute i asked one of my friends and she said we could shoot it in her bedroom. We then travelled to her house and shot it. It only took one take as we had assured there were no problems. For example making sure the camera had sound and that everyone in the house was silent so there was no background noise. We quickly returned to school on time for the end of lesson and quickly uploaded it onto adobe premier ready for editing the nexy lesson.
As soon as the next lesson started the editing began. As it had only taken one take to film there wasn't that much editing to do. First we made sure we had just the bit we filmed on our computer by editing the ten seconds before we filmed which we were making sure we had sound.
While we were in my friends house we filmed a scene in the bathroom which was me just fiddling with my hair like you do in the morning. We filmed that for just over ten seconds. We planned to cut the scene up into four parts and that was going to be used to bridge gaps between the previous scenes. That was then edited when we got back and added to our previous footage on the computer. Once it had been split into many parts it was inserted where we felt neccassery.
Our original idea was to have a monologue over the top where ' Melvin' describes what he thinks his lifes about and what he thinks how everyone feels about him. We then decided to have text on the screen instead as the sound clashed with the music in the background and you couldn't hear my voice. So we then added text which we think has improved our piece ten-fold.
I was entrusted with the task of finding the music for our piece. We were told about a website where you could get music that was not copyright so we could use it. I picked a piece that had dramatic parts to it and the music i chose had just that. It was also meant to have comedic effect as the music built up to a climax but all i was doing was doing my hair which was an anti-climax but a funny one.

Who did what?

This is a short summary of who did what in our production.
Scott sorted out the HALL MONITER titles on photoshop and found an apropriate inhaler to fit the design.
Fraser did the script.
I drew and wrote the storyboard and then I photocopied it so we each had a copy.
I also did the camera positions so we knew where the camera should be when we are filming.
Stevie did the shooting schedule. I have since uploaded my own shooting schedule.
I chose the music to our piece.
Fraser did the majority of the editing. But me and Scott also did
I played the part of the main charcter in our film 'Melvin'.
Fraser and Scott manned the cameras.

Costume and Props

Hall Monitor - We will try and acomplish a 'nerdy' look by get him to wear a brown tank top which is what a stereotypical nerd may wear. The colour is intended to be dull and boring to represent his character. Also the clothes are meant to look unfashionable and different to what the rest of the school is wearing. All the rest of the actors in our film were asked just to wear normal clothes to show the gulf in dress sense between our 'nerd' and everyone else. With regards to props the main prop we used was the speed camera. It was intended to have a homemade feel to it to show that our 'nerdy' character made these items in his spare time. This prop further adds to the stereotype of him being a nerd as 'normal' teenagers wouldn't make a pretend speed camera let alone bring it into school.

Treatment

Our film is titled 'The Hall Moniter' and is about an ordinary boy who is the hall moniter at an ordinary school. But then everything changes...
The film begins with a birds eye view shot of him in bed with a star wars duvet. There will be star wars figures. In the background there is a diegetic sound of an alarm clock. Then we move to a shot where we are circling the hall moniters head. While this is taking place there is non diagetic narration. The narrator is talking about the hall moniters life but at the same time there is footage. this footage is of the opposite to what the narrator says. For example if in the narration it says that the hall moniter is popular the footage will of him being picked on or something like that.
Then the titles commence. They are simply the word HALL MONITER in the middle of the screen with non diegetic music in the background.
The next scene starts with a long shot of a classroom where the hall moniter is sat right at the front of the class. A projectile can be seen thrown from the back of the class clearly aimed at the hall moniter but misses terribly. This then sparks a reaction of pure panic from the H.M. He needs a reassuring hand from the teacher as he starts breathing unhealthily fast. The teacher then lets him out early to go and get ready for his H.M duties.
For the next shot you can see the h.m doing his h.m duties in the hallway with a homemade cardboard speedgun. Also while doing this, people are walking past him giving him funny looks as he tells them to slow down.
Then once break has ended we move to an over the shoulder shot of three boys on three different computers. Two of the boys are still doing work but the h.m has done his early and is now playing on his favourite game...space invaders!!.
Then we skip to dinner time where there is a midshot of the h.m and his friend talking and one of the popular girls in the school is eying up h.m but he is oblivious to her gaze. His friend tells him she is looking at him and the h.m responds by telling her she is going to fast even though she is stationary.
The popular girl then tells her friend, in the next scene, that she likes the h.m. But the popular girls best friend secretly likes the jock who the popular girls goes out with. So she tells the jock what his girlfriend has said. Each conversation will appear on its own as not to confuse the audience. After that the jock confronts the h.m who denies any wrong doing.
The next scene begins with mini cuts of him talking to the popular girl but on different days and day by day he is looking cooler in his clothes and hairstyle. All these shots are just midshots.
After that we cut to a p.e lesson where h.m is playing dodgeball. That particular piece ends with a long shot of h.m picking up the ball.
The next part is him about to throw the ball. In the background is a nondiegetic sound of someone saying 'use the force' in a deep voice. Then he throws it and from a midshot we see the ball go no more than a yard. He picks the ball up for a second time. Again a nondiegetic vioce say 'use the force properly this time'. There is then a close up of the h.m face as he throws the ball. Also there is another close up, this time of the ball as it flies towards its intended target, the jock. As it hits him the whole class falls silent. Half the screen is a close up of the jock, the other half is the face of the h.m. There is a midshot as a fight consumes the group.
Then the next scene we see a slow zoom in of the camera to a boy on the floor it is the jock who has obviously lost the fight with the h.m, who has ditched his flag and gone off with the popular girl, the jocks now ex girlfriend. As the camera fades out we see the jock smile, open his eyes and grab the dirty h.m sash from the floor. That is my treatment for 'The Hall Moniter'

Research teen comedy genre film openings

Below is my research that we conducted after watching Rush Hour,

By watching the film we aimed to gather ideas to aid the planning of our project. Firstly the characters representations were looked at and they were of some help. In the film we watched the main character 'Carter' is a stereotypical representation of a black man. This helped us to decide to have our main charcter as a stereotypical nerd.
Another thing that will influence our project is the titles. In the film the titles were fast, big and bold something we would like to incorporate into our project. They give a fast paced theme to the film which is continued throughout.
Also at the start each charcter is shown seperatly. This lets you know some of the traits of each character to let the audience get to know them better. As with the titles this is something we would like to add to better our piece.

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