Feedback on Swell

After having presented our final piece to an audience, we found that the majority of people enjoyed it and would be interested in watching the complete film. Others that did not enjoy it said that their main criticism was the acting and that some errors of the film were unclear as to what they were supposed to represent. They also said that if they had not been paying much attention they would have missed the fact drugs were passed to Ashley and that this would have been a crucial error as the use of illegal substances was a significant part of the narrative.
We were pleased with the feedback we received as it supported our film, but also gave us useful knowledge as to what we could change if we had more time.

Evaluation 8; Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back at the preliminary task I think that we have progressed a lot. We made the preliminary task very simple, without preparing and thinking as deeply into it as we did with the full product. We played around with camera shots and whether it was close up or a long shot. We practised the rules of continuity. We learnt how to angle the camera, and the best way to do it. Directing the acting we also practised which came in handy when we shot our real thing because of the amount of people we had to direct in the party scenes.
There wasn’t much preparing for the preliminary task, so when we planned for the full product, ‘swell’, we got much more into it and looked at every last detail. We looked at clothes, hair colour, and tone of voice and even what her room looked like. The panning in the preliminary task helped a lot because we also had to pan with Ashley in ‘swell’. From the same side of the room, through the door and sitting down, this made it a lot easier because we had done it before.
Because there was barely any editing for the preliminary task, when we had to edit for ‘swell’, we were quite shocked at how much work it was. But we also had to edit in music and make scenes black and white, so in fact our preliminary task was extremely different to our final product. We used diegetic sounds and non- diegetic sounds, diegetic when they were in the party room, even though we edited it in and the actors couldn’t hear it when filmed. And non- diegetic when Ashley was walking down the long flight of stairs.
For the preliminary task we chose to use natural light and when we filmed for ‘swell’ we chose to use lights or even take away most of the light, when we filmed the party scenes. But we used the natural light in the bedroom scenes because we started filming so early that we had a great morning sun coming in through the windows.

Evaluation 1; Identify the brief

Our film takes you through the journey of a young teenager who has to tackle the prospect of being pregnant. We touch on many teenage issues, such as peer pressure, drug taking, consequences, pregnancy and many more. The opening sequence lets you see how the girl changes from a sweet innocent girl to a pregnant rebelling teenager. We use lots of props to show she is innocent, by the black and white photograph of her mother which you can see in her bedroom, to her white sheets, and clean bedroom. The film will tell us whether she will confront the issue she has to deal with and tell her parents, or will she have an abortion. Will this decision change her life or will she move on? What kind of person will this situation turn her into? These are the questions we want our audience to be asking after they have watched the opening sequence.

Evalutaion 6; How did you attract/address your audience (video blog)

We attracted our audience by listening to what they had to say. We used a questionnaire to start with and then we also asked people what they thought about the idea of a film. When we got negative feedback we would try and change the idea of the film to what the majority were saying, but you can’t always please everyone, although we really did try to! Once we had made the film and we had showed the actors and some people it for feedback we found that they were finding it hard to tell the difference between the flashbacks and the present time. So to make this easier for people to understand we changed the flashbacks to black and white which when we played back to the people how had found it hard to understand they now said it was much easier to understand it.
We also used modern day dress, and the language was also modern day. This helped to attract an audience because they could relate to it. Although not everybody can relate literally to all of the circumstances that happen in the film, they can however relate to a lot of it. Problems with friendship, problems with peer pressure, even if it is not drug related.

Evaluation 7; What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Media

View more presentations from Antonia Formosa.

Blogging was the most used technology throughout the process of making the opening sequence. It kept all our ideas organised and it was very useful. We were able to blog anything and keep it safe while we did other things. We also used Facebook and Hotmail to contact people and make sure everyone was up to date. We also used it to talk to other members of our class and hotmail especially with our teacher.
Wordle is what we used to help create the name for our film, where we came up with many names and ideas about our film and it came out with lots of words. Although we never actually used one of the titles it came up with. Scribbed is what we used when we needed to upload word files to put them in our blog.
We learnt how to use Adobe Premiere and we practised making still credits using Photoshop.
Because of our low budget we were unable to use lights, so we used the natural lights. This worked well as we needed that anyway in Ashley's bedroom. In the party room scenes we were luckily using lights that dimmed down which was good because we need to create a dark room but obviously we needed a bit of light so that we could film. We used a Dv film camera. I learnt lots of things through the internet and lots of skills to help with our film making. For example embedding, which I had never used before making this film. Embedding is when you can copy a YouTube video into your blog. Editing on Adobe is a very useful thing to know how to do. Although it took a lot of practise, it was very simple once you had got used to it.

evaluation 4; in what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In the construction of our narrative we have complied to the codes and conventions of a normal teenage drama. In the sense that the story deals with alienation, rebellion, teen angst, conflict with parents and peer pressure with and underlying story line, dealing with the universal issues that come with a journey of coming of age stories. We established these issues clearly in our opening sequence with the extreme close-up of Ashley’s leaflets on abortion. This combined with shots designed in a central composition of her seated in the middle of the party, clearly alienated from the other partygoers. Establishes her teen angst and awkward,, shy nature that one can easily relate to.
We have decided to display the narrative in a non-linear fashion by utilising flashbacks to clue in the audience on the escapades that were the catalysts in her downward spiral.
As the opening sequence conventionally sets up the whole atmosphere for the movie, the blatant lack of adults being present tells the audience that this film will be mainly focused on young adults, in turn this is evidence of our genre being directed at teens, this coupled with the melancholic, and sombre music, establishes the movies status as a teen drama.
We have undertaken a style of editing that involves numerous cross cutting between the present day shots of Ashley and the flashbacks. This made the process quite laborious and meant intricate system of shots and sounds. The cross cutting was used as a representational method of portraying the madness and confusion plaguing Ashley’s mind. It is noticeable in the movie that we have made use of very little locations; this shows our lack of budget, though it creates a realistic image of a teenage lifestyle. Our costumes are clearly representative of the fashion styles of modern day teenagers. The props used were instrumental of displaying the troubles and peer pressure our character Ashley would have to face. These being the bottle of vodka Ashley clutches nervously to her chest as though it was a lifeline as she wanders in her own social peril and the substances she is peer pressured into taking. We decided to go with a classic design for our typography, especially with the aesthetic, as we were faced with the problem of having the colours being defined enough to be noticeable. The visual conventions of the genre are conspicuously displayed within the opening sequence and can be identified as the leaflets on abortion, the alcoholic drinks and the substances offered to Ashley.

evaluation 3; what kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?

For this film we could use warp films or working title. Both would suit our film, but in a very different way. Warp films are low budget, indie films like ‘This is England’, which concentrate mostly on cultural values. This type of film only really appeals to the culture that is being portrayed. Warp films does not have enough resources and sponsors to make their films with a high budget. This would be good for our film, ‘Swell’ because it tries to make the audience relate to it through cultural values such as pregnancy, drugs and other stuff that happens in teenage everyday lives. Working title would be a high budget, make it a romantic comedy and would use international actors. They wouldn’t focus on cultural aspects that the film has.
I think Warp films would be the better institute to distribute our film, ‘swell’ because it would tell our story better. A teenage film that working title produced would be ‘wild child’. It portrays glamour, fashion and a stereotypical view on British teenagers.

Swell Rough Cut Analysis

This what we have done so far to the 2 minute film, 'Swell'. We have finished cutting the scenes and have put them together quite well i think. We haven't yet finished all of the effects etc yet and we are planning on making the flashback scenes, the ones at the party, made black and white. This is for the audience to see clearly that they are flashback scenes.
We still need to find some music and put it into the film. We need to find two different tracks, one sad track to play while we watch Kat in her bedroom and walking down the stairs. And another track to play during the party, to make it more like a party.
I think as the story line goes, we have achieved what we intended to. It is well set out, and i think it will be easy for the audience to understand the story line. Because of the amount of 'close-ups' we use for Ashley, i think the audience wil.l be able to understand emotionally her issues, and feel for her. I think a lot of people will find it realistic as it so easily could happen to a teenager.

Evaluation 5; How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Through mise-en-scene we manage to demonstrate Ashley’s character of a sweet simple girl, specifically through the props that were used in her bedroom and her chosen attire of her plain and appropriate t-shirt and jeans. This created a stereotypical representation of the wholesome girl-next-door. As our film targets young women explicitly, it was very important to us to show them in a realistic light, so as to create a foundation for young girls to learn from and relate to.
Because Ashley succumbs to her temptations she is automatically seen as more human and therefore her character becomes more three-dimensional. This directly challenges other representations of young girls as large studios prefer to distribute an image of a teenager that’s says no to peer pressure. Conventions are challenged this way due to Ashley’s human actions.
However in the aspect of our representation of males, we have created a fairly two dimensional character. This is acceptable, due to the films explicit targeting at females. We only see two male characters within the opening sequence, who are both instrumental in peer pressuring Ashley into taking drugs and having sex. Therefore they are considered the ‘evil’ characters and thus it becomes a fairly stereotypical model of the male gender.
Youth has also been represented in our media product. We have portrayed a typical view of how the world perceives youth today, that being irresponsible, as substance and alcohol abusers and as sexually active with no regard for the consequences. However this was pertinent to our product as we wanted to show that even those of the most wholesome personality may fall to the pressures of teenagers. This was important in our creation of a realistic setting and character. It is evident from the large staircase that Ashley descends and the nicely furnished home that she is from the middle class section of society, which is then further enhanced by the diegetic sound of radio four that is being played from the kitchen.

Swell Final Cut