The Intern- final film

Risk Assessment

Storyboard

Evaluation

1.In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? My film is a romantic drama. Three major films influenced my film opening. ‘Love Actually’ was the first film that inspired me. This was due to Huw Grant’s voice over in the opening sequence. However ‘Love Actually’ is a romantic comedy whereas I decided to go for a more serious approach in my film. The second film that inspired me was ‘He’s just not that into you’ (romantic comedy drama). Again it was the voice over that caught my attention, however this was a female saying the voice over which meant it was closer to something I would do. The third film was ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ which is a romantic comedy drama. I think the storyline to this film is the most similar to mine. It has shots of women getting ready in the opening sequence as I have Rachel doing her make-up in mine. The first few shots of my film are establishing shots. You get this at the start of many films, including romantic dramas. Additionally the non-diegetic sound is a contemporary pop song which is relevant to a romantic comedy. The high angle shot of the Vogue magazines also suggest to the audience that it is going to be about fashion, along with the voice over. 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? My film opening shows that Rachel is upper class. This is due to the vogue magazines and the suggestion that she shops in high end stores such as prada. 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? My film would be produced by a large British production company and be shown in the cinema. As all the actors would be British I thought it would be apt to have a British Production company. Also I believe this is they type of film you would see in the cinema especially as it relates to the films I have mentioned in question one which were all also in the cinema. 4. Who would be the audience for your media product? My target audience for my film is for females 15+. This is due to the majority of it being about fashion and therefore is more likely to be appealing to females. Additionally there would be strong language and scenes of a sexual nature throughout the film so it would need to be age 15. 5. How did you attract / address your audience? The voice over would attract the audience as people may agree and be able to relate to what it is saying. Additionally if they read Vogue they are going to be attracted as most people that are interested in fashion are. 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? When editing this film I used Adobe Premiere Pro. I learnt how to use a variety of different editing techniques. I learnt how to import music and voice over and then adjust the sound so you can hear both of them clearly at the same time. I also learnt how to insert titles to my film and have them appearing using different effects and angles, such as cross dissolve. I had to make a lot of cuts throughout my editing due to the time limit and some of the shots have jolts in that needed to be cut out. I had to make sure the cuts were smooth, and the camera was at the same angle if I was getting rid of sections from the middle of a shot. Also I had to make sure there were not any continuity errors such as a shot with Rachel with lipstick cutting to a shot without. Finally ordering the shots was something I learnt. The shots don’t necessarily have to be in the order you filmed them. By adding a different kind of shot in the middle of some similar shots it makes it more visually intersteing. 7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? The preliminary was a huge help in make my opening sequence as prior to that I had not made a proper sequence. I learnt about how different angles can make it visual interesting however you don’t need to keep cutting to different angles as it may be too much. In my preliminary task, some parts were not as believable as I would have liked them to be this was due to me not being as assertive with my actors as I should be. When filming my opening sequence I was precise with what I wanted my actress to do in order to get the desired shot. I did learn about adding titles when doing my preliminary however it was only one at the start. I used a black screen with red text, thinking back it may have looked a bit tacky and therefore when doing my titles for my opening sequence I went for a more basic approach and also had them over the top of my film.

Costume

The main character in my film is very fashion conscious and feminine. Therefore she is wearing a knee length black and white floral dress.

Additionally she is wearing bright red Christian Dior lipstick. This demonstrates that she is confident and stylish.

She also has big glamorous sunglasses, similar to those worn by Actress Mila Kunis in the Dior advert in the Vogue magazine. This shows that as well as being fashionable she is influenced by the media (magazines) as stated in the voice over.

Recce Notes

All my filming is in London. The establishing shots at the beginning of my film opening are at the South Bank. This means from the very first shot the audience already know that it is in London as it has the iconic London eye.

There are also some shots of Rachel walking on the Hungerford Bridge. The high number of people was both a negative and a positive for filming. On the negative side the public could ruin shots or knock the camera. On the positive side it shows the character has a busy lifestyle. Hungerford Bridge is a good place to film as you can see the London eye from it which reminds the audience of the location of the film.

The shot of Rachel leaving the house is filmed in Queen Ann Street. I picked this location as the postal code is W1. This is known as a wealthy area of London and again helps the audience figure out what kind of character she portraying.

I filmed Rachel walking down Regent street as it has high end fashion stores; the type of stores the character would shop in.

The final few shots are filmed in Broomfield Park, in North London. The main reason for this is that it was not very busy and I needed the location to match the content of the voice over which indicated she had lost friends and family.

Magazines

One of my shots is high end fashion magazines such as vogue being thrown on top of each other. The problem with this is Vouge only comes out once a month so it is hard to collect lots and it is £4.50 an issue. Additionly not a lot of people have vouge lying around their house. Instead they have more affordable magazines like Heat. Therefore I have decided to find vouge covers online and then print them out and stick them on front of other magazines.

Mirror?

I was having some trouble finding the right kind of mirror for the mirror shot. It needs to be one that just shows the actress (Devon) waist up. It would also be useful to be on a dressing table of a normal table so the make-up can be lined up in front of her and I will film her putting it on. We are going to try and film at my nans as she has a dressing table with a mirror. The complications with doing this are getting there and having conflicting schedules with my actress.

My Script

"We are in an ever changing society and are constantly told what to wear and how to act through copious amounts of media devices. We are presented with new problems we never even knew we had and for what? To give our money to people who don't even know us. Freedom of expression is sparse and the majority of people are all clones of one another. I may loose my job by writing this. However I feel as though I have already lost everything that matters. This is the story of how I got everything I wanted yet lost everything I needed. /"

- I will be reading this over the top of the on screen action.
- There will also be music which I have yet to choose but it must have no lyrics.
- I think it needs to be a bit longer in order to fill the whole 3 minutes in which we are expected to use.

Final Idea influence (Devil wears Prada)

The parts of interest are:
The people doing hair and make-up in the mirror
the feet walking
and the general attire of the women.

Second Idea

Production Meeting.

On the 23rd of February we had a production meeting and discussed where we are with our feature film openings.

My ideas had changed a lot since I presented my prezi.

Originally I wanted to do something like the Love Actually opening. It has people of all ages being greeted at Heathrow Airport and has Hugh Grant narrating over the top. The reason I moved away from this idea is because of the location and shortage of actors.

My next idea was to do something similar to the opening of 'He's Just Not That into You'. This also has narration. It has a young girl and boy and the narration is the young girl talking but grown up. I was going to do an adaptation of this using a young girl being the younger version of me and then myself. I moved away from this idea as I didn't want to be in the film myself as I wanted to film it. Additionally there were conflicting schedules with me and the child actor. Due to school hours.

My third idea is the one I have settled on. The film is about implied behavioural normacly theory. This refers to a problem being created; for example suggesting you have wrinkles when it had never occured to you and then they present the soloution. This leads you to spending money on a problem you never knew you had. The basic plot of the film is a young girl works in the fashion idustry and she has become to consumed with the media and the media's view on 'the perfect woman' that she becomes isolated from her friends and family. I'm not sure what order the following shots will be in but theses are the shots I have chosen to use:

• Magazines being thrown on top of each other



• hands flicking through magazines



• feet walking



• reflection in a mirror ( copying a hairstyle from a high fashion magazine)- Graphic match

My film has influences to 'Devil Wears Prada' , 'Easy A', and '13 going on 30'

Prezi on intial idea for opening of feature film

Prezi

My Prezi is quite brief as I was unsure about what I wanted to do. However through doing it and saying my ideas out loud it made me realise what I actualy want to do and without that I wouldn't have got my final idea.

Evaluation of Preliminary Task.

What skills have you learned and developed?

• Editing


• Exporting


• How to cut two clips together


• Continuity

Which digital technologies did you use to make your product?

• Canon DV Cam Corder


• Zoom


• Export


• Post on blog


• Premiere Pro CS3

What are the strengths of your video product?

• Smooth cuts


• Variety of camera angles


• Followed the rules of continuity

What could be improved about the final product?

• Could have been more strict with the actors.