Evaluation

Our Preliminary

 


Preliminary Evaluation

ICHYPOAYC Review from Conor Boyle on Vimeo.

Our Movie


Dropout from Conor Boyle on Vimeo.

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

Character

The characters in teen movies are normally selected to relate to different aspects of a teenagers life as well as usually focusing on topics that teenagers may be able to relate to such as first love, trouble, family conflict, teen anger, rebellion, loneliness and alienation. Our movie focuses on the idea of being different and standing out from the crowd. This is something commonly addressed by teen movies and so it is clear that our movie follows the codes and conventions in this way. However, in some teen movies a character may be ridiculed for  being different but in our movie, the main character is almost admired for being "cool" and "different". In some ways, this challenges the codes and conventions of a teen movie as this character is normally looked down on by the others. We did this by making our character a skinhead as they are normally on the fringes of society and not a group you would expect the average teen to belong to.

Overall, i believe our movie both follows and challenges the codes and conventions of a typical teen movie. It does this by addressing scenarios impacting teens such as being different but it addresses them in a different way than what would be expected.

Filming and Titles

Teen movies may use creative and artistic techniques in the filming or titles. This could be using drawings or handwritten titles to help relate the movie to school or using slow paced editing to show the laziness of a teen. In our movie we used a font called 'With My Woes' for our titles which makes them look handwritten and helps relate the movie back to school, creating a sense of understanding with the viewer. These titles pop up constantly throughout our movie opening and so they act as a constant reminder of this relation with the viewer.

We filmed our movie with creative techniques that may be found on various channels on YouTube such as Casey Neistat, a vlogging YouTuber. We used techniques such as time-lapses and action matches to relate to these other film makers that would have a large teenage following.

Overall, we followed these creative codes and conventions in our movie through different shot types and titles. These different things helped us relate to the viewer and hopefully helped them enjoy the movie more, using techniques they are used to.

Music

Teen movies will normally use a soundtrack or style of soundtrack that is popular with their teenage audience at the time the film is released. For our movie we used a hard-rock soundtrack that was written and played for us by a fellow-pupil called Jack McGarry. Not only is this genre of music popular with a significant amount of young people, it was written by one too. We hoped this would help the viewers relate to the film as well as the high-tempo music helping create a sense of excitement during the movie.

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3. 2.How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Although only two characters are seen in our movie,a combination of two different social groups can be seen within these two characters. The main character (Ryan) is part of two social groups:

School Student:

 The school student is represented as an untidy, lazy,  disorganised  individual. This representation becomes apparent from the very beginning of the movie when we hear the narrator (Ryan) speak straight after the alarm clock sounds. Ryan says " I just want you to understand school's not for everyone." This creates the impression of a teen who can't really be  bothered with school and isn't entirely grateful, as well as suggesting he may not be completely fond of a structured daily routine. These are all stereotypical traits given to most modern-day teens.

Skinhead: 

A skinhead is a member of a subculture that originated among working class youths in London, England, in the 1960s and then soon spread to other parts of the United Kingdom, and later to other countries around the world. They are known for being antisocial and rebellious in comparison to a normal person. They were often involved in assaults and antisocial behaviour and have got a bad reputation.

The skinhead is represented as a teen without much consideration for his school life and for his future as he seems to skip school impulsively without giving it much thought. He says "Let's see how today goes." This shows that he doesn't know what to expect from his day and that he is quite rebellious. Although he is rebellious, he wasn't made out to be violent or involved in any antisocial behaviour. 

0. 7.Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? 
1. It is hard to make a direct comparison between my preliminary and the full product as we went two completely different routes with the movies. My preliminary task was was very disorganised. The actors didn't know their lines, there were lines left out, we had to switch actors etc. These issues led to my group being a lot more organised this time around. We knew exactly when and where we were going to film and who was responsible for each aspect of filming. 
2. For our preliminary, our group attempted to make a comedy movie which quite frankly wasn't funny. By the time we realised this, it was too late. To stop this from happening again, we went down a more serious route with this movie. We left out silly lines and actions and tried to make the movie as professional as possible. 
3. The editing on our preliminary wasn't very smooth and the music and other sound effects didn't match the movie. I wanted to be sure this wouldn't happen again and so we used relevant music for the backing track. We also stabilised must of our shots and spent a lot more time with the editing of clips. We ensured we had an excess of clips for our movie so that we could pick and choose the best clips to have the best possible outcome.