Juno Evaluation

Evaluation of Juno

Our Juno shot was successful in my eyes, we worked well as a team and everyone had a job, we managed to note down everything on our storyboard that we needed to apart from a few minor details. We missed details such as the hand that Juno holds the orange juice in and the way she walks the wrong way down the alley. We were able to fix the fact that she walks the wrong way down the alley by adding the horizontal flip to the video, this means its almost like looking at it in  the mirror and it will be done the opposite way. We used this so we can get Juno walking from left to right in the wrongly shot footage to her walking right to left. This means it was like the original.  Another problem we had was the fact at some points we missed some of the actions Juno made. These included taking a sip of orange when she was walking. It didn't have a major effect to on the final production it just meant that we were missing little details. 

Our story board was as accurate as we could of hoped for. We didn't seem to miss any shots and we had the right camera angles in every shot. I will go into more detail in the story board section below this evaluation.

Within the group there was a many different strengths. Each person had a different strength, Alex worked the camera in this production and he offered many different skills to get the perfect shots and at the best quality. Millie managed to act superbly well and this meant we could have a serious actor to try and fit the character of Juno as well as possible. Spencer was a late addition to the group. As we had 4 people in our group it meant that not everyone had to do things at the same time. It would mean that one person is free to do any jobs that needed doing. For example when we got to the location to film it we realised that there was not SD card in the camera so Spencer had to run back to class to get one. My job within the group was to make sure everything that we needed was there, for example I had to go and get a guitar as we needed it as a prop. I also had to make sure that no one would interrupt the filming. 

We managed to get all the footage needed, we got quite lucky with some shots. We managed to get the van driving in the background of one of the shots, this is brilliant as it shows that we are trying to get it as close to the actual production as possible. 

Whilst editing I learnt many skills, I learnt how to get the cartoon effect on the footage. I also learnt how to do complete a horizontal flip, this can come in hand when we miss shoot certain scenes. It means that we can get the actor walking the other way across the camera. 

Clearly we couldn't get it identical to the actual Juno scene but we had all the right shots but two, we didn't have the exact effect that they had on the editing part but we tried and it came out really well and it was a good shot at a replica. 

Storyboard Evaluation

Story Board Evaluation. 

To start of this Juno editing task required us to watch the opening scene (the first 1min 5) of Juno. From there it was possible for us to derive a storyboard. This is the first storyboard that we needed to create for Media and we learnt alto from it I learnt that we can't just try and remember what needs to be done in the films its important that you write down the timings, the shot needed and the correct setting and props that you need for each picture in the story board. 


Below is the storyboard that we have created for the Juno Task. 

This story board then gave us a complete and detailed list of all the shots we needed and the framing necessary to film. It also gave us timings and the scenery. The idea of a storyboard is for a complete stranger to be able to pick up your story board and be able to film what you were going to. It needs to have every detail in the film. 

Punchin' Film Presentation

Film Pitch Presentation

First we got put into groups, then we randomly selected a genre and audience to make a pitch for out of the hat . We ended up with a 'romantic comedy' and the audience 'teenage boys'. In our film pitch, we spoke about the synopsis of the film, the characters and the actors we would like to play the roles, the location of the film, our target audience and how we altered the film to fit the target audience, our marketing ideas and our influences.

During our presentation, we were being peer assessed. Our classmates filled out a sheet of paper each, rating the different aspects of our film idea and giving comments on what we did well and how we could improve.

Some comments included:

"You have chosen and relevant and catchy film title"

"Interesting cast chosen to play each character - would need a very big budget"

"The narrative fits the genre well"

"The actors are perfect for their roles"

"Have included 'The Male Gaze' in order to appeal to their target audience, but the overall film may be more suited to girls"

"The film is different from other films of this genre"

"Could've included more visuals to make the presentation more fun to watch. Catered to the target audience"

"Not many enigma codes"

"Good range of advertising ideas"

Overall, I feel that our film idea was a success, even though there are improvements that could be made. I believe that our concept is different to other films and, with a bit more time and thought, we could have achieved a great film idea fitting the genre of Romantic Comedy and for the target audience of teenage boys.

Pete Fraser Talk

Pete Fraser Work

Today Pete Fraser 'The God of Media' from BFI in London came to talk to us and help guide us around our coursework and gave us tips on how to help improve films we make and showed us key mistakes other pupils have made in the past. I learnt many things from him and below are all the things he told us about and top tips on what to do and what not to do. Below are some of the tips he told us and what I learnt from him. 

He made sure to tell us that film openings are not trailers. Many students end up submitting trailers not film openings. If you do this you will end up loosing your effect of the viewer and it will result in you dropping marks in the marking scheme.

Below are key features for a film opening.

Below are some of the key features of the film opening.
- Genre
- Narrative
- Character
- Atmosphere
- Setting

His top tips for making a film opening 
- Start General
- Home in on specifics
- Make your research focused and relevant

He then went on to give us a handy website that is full of film openings. This will be very useful in the future and its a great website to have all of them in the same place.  The website was called  www.artofthetitle.com

Next he spoke about the titles. The names that fly up onto your screen either before or after the film has started. He explained several things I had no idea happen. For example that actors lawyers battle it out to see which actors name appears first in the title sequence. Actors who have their name solo are usually the biggest and most famous actors of the cast and they will play a lead role in the play. Having these names solo will hopefully attract more customers to watch your film. Titles flow through the opening to make sure people don't think that this is a trailer and that it is the actual film.

He then went onto explain about Foley. I again had no idea about this. Its someone recreating the sound needed. For example if there is a part where someone is walking and you can hear the foot steps some one will have recorded the sound of them and only them walking. This goes for several sounds and Pete explained how every noise made in the film that is not speech is made through this process.Below is Gary Hecker and he is doing some Foley for Robin Hood back in 2012.

Organising your project, doing this will help the project dramatically and being organised will mean that more will get done in a shorter time. 

Step 1

Take Stock- there are 20 marks available for the research and planing and for the evaluation of the project. Then there is 60 available for the construction of the video and the end product.

Some top tips for this- Build up research and planning

                                     Build up skills 

                                     Keep evidence whilst filming 

Step 2

Build up skills

Sound

Camera work

Editing

Step 3:

Investigation 

 Step 4:

Brainstorm ideas

Pitches

      Mood board

Feedback

Step 5:

Planning

Experimenting

Story board

Logistics

Step 6:

The shoot

People, places, props, costumes

Directing

Equipment, jobs that people need to do on the day

Step 7

Edit- Take screen shots of process of editing 

Step 8:

Evaluation

Sexist Film Poster

The Film Poster I have chose to anaylase the sexism in is Trainwreck. 

Pictured above is the film poster of my selected film. We can see that she is drinking but he isnt. This is a common occurrence in today's society. The man will try to get her drunk then he has a bigger chance of getting with her. From this poster we can also see that she is wearing a low cut top showing her boobs. This is a stereotype of a women on a night out. Not every women when they go out will wear a low cut revealing top. Another clue that shows us this is sexist is the positioning of the man behind her. The man in the background looks to be more responsible as he is dressed up in a suit wiht a disproving look on his face at this blonde lady binge drinking. The media have twisted this picture in various ways, its trying to say that this is your typical 'blonde girl' that is a dumb, wreckless and lacks intelligence and that all men are respectful and  not as reckless as the women.

Representation

In today's lesson the focus was representation in the media. We learnt about how characters, events and ideas are portrayed to the audience to make them feel a certain way. This is done by presenting different aspects of the media stereo typically.

Representation

The way in which people, events and ideas are presented to the audience. In terms of Media, representation is how the media takes something that is already there and represents it to us in the way that they choose, to make their audience feel a certain way about particular characters or themes. These representations are created by the producers of the film and the people who choose to present us with this are Gatekeepers. A Gatekeeper is any person involved in a media production with the power to make a decision about what the audience can hear, see, read and what they cannot see, hear or read.

Stereotype

Used in media because audience will instantly understand them. Stereotypes can also be referred to as 'Visual Short Cuts' to help understand the concept.

Archetypes

 'Ultimate Stereotype'. An example of an ultimate stereotype is a 'blonde bimbo typically in stilettos and well groomed with no common sense.

Counter type

A counter type is a representation that challenges traditional stereotypical associations, groups, people and places.

An example of a stereotypical French man vs an actual French man

Another example of stereotypical judgement are Arabic men. Below is a picture of an Arabic man vs a stereotypical portrayal of an Arabic  

Institution

Institution

Mainstream Films Vs Independent

Today we learned about the largest film institutes and ways indie films trying to break their way through into the cinema world. We learnt today that cinemas do not make most of their money from ticket sales,that usually goes to the film and distributors themselves. They make most of their money from popcorn and food sales. For example a cinema can make a large bucket of popcorn for 1p and sell it for it for £5 

To get a film into the cinemas you have to make the film and then use a distributor to get it into the cinemas and they ring up each cinema and find out if they can get a their film to show at the cinema and then decide where they shall show the movie and at what times.

Big Six

Sony

 Warner Bros

20th Century Fox

Paramount

Disney

Universal

Smaller companies have to try and persuade some of the big six to help produce and fund the film. They usually go into cinemas when large blockbusters are not being released and therefore have much less competition.

The mainstream film I will compare with the independent film will be Captain America and Superbad. Superbad being the independent film. 

First of all Marvel Universe created Captain America and Paramount pictures distribute it, The Apatow company produced Superbad and Columbia Pictures distributed it. This would of helped get more viewers interested and would result in more views of the film.

The budget in comparison between the two films is ridiculous.  Captain America had a budget of $170 million US dollars. Compare this to the budget for Superbad which only cost $20 million US dollars to make. This is a difference of $150 million dollars. Captain America made a profit of over $714 million US dollars, compare this to the profit of Superbad which was $169 million US dollars. 

There is a huge gap in popularity between Marvel and The Apatow Company. Most people wouldn't of even heard of The Apatow Company whereas most of the world will know Marvel. Marvel have recently been bought by Disney for $4 Billion US dollars compare this to the worth of Apatow Company which is only worth $90 million US dollars. This means that it cost more to make Captain America than the whole of Apatow Company. 

Captain America was produced by Marvel and only Marvel. Marvel would of had loads of different leaders for certain parts of the film. They would of had large amounts of numbers in teams. This means that there is a higher quality of production as every aspect of the film is covered in more depth and with much larger teams with greater experience. The Apatow Company would still of had different teams for each aspect but they wouldn't of had the depth and the quality that Marvel posses. The film would still of been made to a professional standard but by watching both you would of been able to tell who made what film.

A key similarity for both films would be the fact that they were both given a budget to work to in the hope they would make a much bigger profit than the production cost's. 

Marvel have created several successful films, these include Spiderman , Thor, X-Men, Hulk and The Avengers just to name a few. The Apatow Company have also produced many films but they haven't been anywhere near the success rate of the films listed above. They have produced films such as The 40 Year old Virgin, Bridesmaids, Step Brothers and Pineapple Express. 

Marvel have a huge reputation in the film industry for making cartoon type films. The Apatow Company have some good comedy films such as Step Brothers and Bridesmaids.

Marvel have a huge age range that they appeal to. Many men of today's generation still watch Marvel films because they grew up watching them. The films have been past down through generation and from anywhere around the age of 10 upwards people start watching these films. The Apatow company is not quite the same range in there target audience, many films are rated a 15 and realistically I wouldn't expect a 40 years old to watch their films. I would suggest that they try to appeal to 15-30 year old maximum. 

Marvel is clearly more successful than The Apatow Company, this is reflected in their budgets, profit margins and age ranges. Marvel have such a influence on the film market today they could work with almost any superhero film and make a huge turnover. They have a better advertisement programme, are more likely to get higher quality actors and can put alot more money into the production. 

Film Language

Camera

Frame

Angle   

-Worms eye view- low angle   

-Level

-Birds eye view- high angle 

Movement

-pan right to left

-tilt up and down 

-tracking shot 

-stedicam

-handheld

Editing

-Transitions
-Order of narrative
-Pace- Slow/Quick

-SFX

Mise en scene

-Costume
-Lighting 
-Actors- Their Age, Gender, Ethnicity, Class, Sexuality, Posture, Accent, Clothing.
-Make-up-  - Normal Make-up, Special Effects or No Make-up.
-Props

Sound

-Dialogue

-Music

-Diegetic sound/non diegetic

-Setting

Textual Analysis

Boyz N the Hood

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=boyz+n+the+hood+dutch+subtitles&FORM=HDRSC3#view=detail&mid=BCA98CE309ED50662AF4BCA98CE309ED50662AF4

At the beginning of the the film we are already introduced to sounds without any picture. Firstly we hear voices then foul language, after that we hear gun shots which then leads to children and high pitch screaming this gives us a very strong clue as to what has happened. From the sound we have gaged the first act is going to have something to do with the shooting that has just taken place.

                                               
We are then introduced to some primary school children. They are of black ethnicity and live in America, they are walking to school and talking about all the gunshot they heard last night from inside their own homes. This is one of the main settings, the children are in loose fit, brightly colored clothing. Its clear that its a deprived neighborhood from one the shooting that went on last night and the rubbish on the street, the quality of housing and the graffiti on the walls. The children seem very comfortable in this situation, I think that they have grown up with shootings outside their front door has made them more relaxed in this type of situation. I am sure if you put someone from a more fortunate neighborhood in which shooting doesn't happen they wouldn't be so relaxed and settled in this situation. From this we can see that they are individually strong and not phased by much. 

We can see bullet marks on the wall of the abandoned building. One of the female children explains that she sees blood on the floor this then turns yellow, this is the films second graphic match.In this scene the camera is ranging between close up frames and mid-shots, we are also seeing a lot of panning. The next scene is we see is set in the classroom. Two of the boys start to argue in which we can see that they are both strongly opinionated. We are presented with a medium long shot for this part. The two boys have to turn to violence to resolve the argument.

In the final scene it starts off with an extra long shot of the street in which there is violence. Its worrying that a child can walk home on his own past this and not think twice about it but this shows the culture and the differences compared to today. We are watching the boy walk home but we are listening to the mother of the boy on the phone to the teacher, as the mother is black the teacher assumes that she is uneducated and unemployed as this was normal for black people in this time. However his mother is quite the opposite, she is well dressed, very educated and is in a full time job. From the boys upbringing in the community he thinks its acceptable to fight in gangs and his attitude he displayed in the classroom reflects this. The neighbourhood is influencing his attitude and thought trains.