4) Who would be the audience for your product? 5) How did you attract/address your audience?

Our Commentary:

Our Script:

(4) Our target audience were mainly females aged 15-25. Their social class would be C1 as they are more likely to be youthful and enjoy that sort of Genre. Females are also more likely to find musicals interesting especially because they can relate to the protagonist more. Usually, students (High school or Post Graduate) who enjoy music and enjoy comedy films. The narrative is easy to follow as musicals mostly focus on the visuals and the music rather then the dialogue.

(5) Our production card appealed to our musical enthusiasts as it presents the genre of the film. We chose a purple background which conveys feelings of happiness and joy, it also looks quite feminine. The title ‘musical note’ also shows the genre of the film which is about to begin.

The music we chose for our film was upbeat and would appeal to the audience as it is very common in musicals. It can appeal to the female audience as it is a young female singer so the audience would be able to connect with them . The lyrics ‘The best is yet to come’ also help to foreshadow future events in the film. In the opening shot, we decided to introduce the location. Piccadilly Circus is a very familiar public area which is often seen in musicals, as they are usually set in big cities. The protagonist is introduced as she is leaving the Underground Station so it is clear that she has travelled to this location. The illuminated advertising hoardings also give the location an appealing and harmonious look.  The font that we used for the title ‘Big City’ looks very fresh and will most likely appeal to the younger females between the ages of 15-17. The hat that Agata is wearing is common among retro teenagers which were part of our target audience, this would be something that they may be able to relate to. The quick transitions pick up the pace of the film, this makes the film visually appealing to the younger audience and keeps them engaged especially as musicals are often fast paced. When filming, the weather was sunny. This was beneficial as it reflected the characters happy feelings. The cold weather also gave us reason for Agata wearing a coat as we did not want to show her entire costume straight away.

The use of the low angle shot makes the protagonist look powerful and strong as she steps into the centre of Piccadilly, this may appeal to the young female audience as they would be able to connect with the character in terms of age and can earn the viewers admiration. From research we saw that low angle shots were often used by males such as in the hairspray to make them look powerful on stage. The Over-the-shoulder shot that I used helps the audience understand that the character is going to a theatre and the leaflet indicates which theatre production it is. We relied on props such as those to introduce the narrative without the use of dialogue. The introduction of Hannah, as she bumps into Agata may also appeal to the audience as it encourages the female audience to have sympathy for the character. It also shows the audience how fragile the protagonist really is in such a big city.

The foyer as after she enters the building may appeal to the older audience as it looks prestigious and visually appealing, it helps the audience to understand that where the protagonist is going is extravagant. The mise-en-scene might also interest the audience in terms of lightning and costume. As Agata takes of her coat we are shown a much brighter and visually enticing costume. Our ‘lay’ audience would find the bright glowing colours appealing, it also gave Agata a joyful persona. Agata’s costume was influenced from the character Rachel from Glee as they both look young and dress colourfully. The lighting may appeal to the audience as it builds tension and shows the audience that a musical number is about to take place. The use of the high angle shot may encourage the female audience to sympathise for the character as she looks timid and ambivalent. The lighting also helps to show that the character is completely alone and independent. From research we learnt that high angle shots are often used on stage as they can clearly show the characters body language in the shot and their movement on stage.

The final shot, a close-up on Agata’s face help to show the audience her expression, this helps the audience connect with the character as they can clearly see what she is feeling. We cut off just before a musical number is about to start.

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

At the start of the school year, we were assigned a group (four or so people) in whichwe had to create a short cfilm of somebody walking through the corridor and entering a room. During this task, I learned how to use different shots effectively and it influenced a lot of the shots we chose to use for our film opening (eventhough I was in a different group). You can also see a improvement in the professionalism of our shots from the preliminary task to our final.

Film from our preliminary task                             'Big City' Opening scene

In my preliminary task, the continuity was not smooth, the camera cuts when the character is around a meter away. This looked very unprofessional and did not show any editing skills. In 'Big City' I made sure that I showed smooth continuity so as I (Agata, the protagonist) walk towards the illuminated advertising hoardings, I walk in front of the camera and when it cuts away to a medium shot, the transition is very neat. In comparison, the movie opening looks a lot more professional. 

On the left side of the picture above, you can see that Olivia's face is barely visible because of the light coming from the window behind her. It makes the scene look a lot more darker compared to when the camera cuts to my face being well-lit. In contrast, the picture of the right is a screen grab on the right is from 'Big City'. We placed the camera in a place which would give us a good light source rather then facing the window. The scene looks a lot more professional and you can see a clear improvement from the preliminary task.

When Olivia is checking her phone to see who is calling, we used a Point of View shot, it clearly showed the Caller ID but the lighting is very dark compared to the other shots. Whereas in our film opening we used an Over the Shoulder shot which proved to be more effective as you could show a lot more visually and it stayed connected the character as you could see them. The lighting is also a lot more brighter and fits in with the other scenes.

Furthermore, the music in our preliminary task often switches. There is a lot of background noise and the dialogue is very difficult to understand because of this. This was one of the reasons that we chose to have  non-diegetic music over our scene rather then dialogue. In the shots that we took in Piccadilly Circus, there were Police sirens and shouting, we thought that it made the shots sound unpleasant so deleted the sound.

During the post-production of the preliminary task, I did the editing and it was my first time using Final Cut Pro Express. I learnt how to crop scenes and create smooth transitions, it prepared me for the editing that I was going to do for the film opening.

URL to the full video of our preliminary task: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2lrLmanC40

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

During the process of creating the film opening, I have learnt to use a Mac effectively along with a number of different programs. I did mainly the post-production things such as cutting the scenes, creating a production card and picking music.

This is a screen grab of my first attempt at editing our practice shots so I can learn how to add effects and the colour corrector. I learnt how to crop scenes, add effects and put music over scenes. I did the editing for the group but we discussed together how we wanted to do it. I also learnt different shortcuts in the program and became fluent in them.

Me using the 'flop filter' effect to flip our scene after receiving feedback from the rough cut. You can also see that I used Colour Corrector on the scene to brighten up the sequence. These were two of the effects that I learnt to use, it taught me how to change Contrast, Brightness and Saturation, these were very important in musicals as everything has to be bright and the Protagonist has to stand out from the rest.

I was also taught how to use Garageband, we were shown how to create a track using a range of instruments as well as a piano or plain vocals. Eventhough we didn't use my track for the production card, I now know how to use the program and can use my skills in later work. The program is very helpful when you want to create or alter a track you download.

The camera and tripod we were given to use.

As the director, it was also my role to tell my team members where to place the camera. Yasmine and I would often discuss where to position the camera to shoot effectively and we would look at lighting and  practice shots to make sure that the final shot was as perfect as it could be. During this, I also learned how to use the camera. I was not personally the camera operator (as I was acting) but I was in charge of the camera and tripod and would often look at the shots during my own time. I learned how to use the camera and play around with the settings as we would often have problems with some shots turning out blurry and this was due to the macro being turned on.

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

After researching several distribution companies, I noticed 'New Line Cinema' distributed both of the Hairspray musicals. This was relevant to my film Big City as they were both aimed at the same audience, the narrative was similar to each others and they both aimed to attract the same age group and gender. I also looked at who distributed A Chorus Line but found that 'Columbia Pictures' did not have any teenage movies like 'New Line Cinema' does. Many of the films distributed by 'New Line Cinema' are comedies aimed at teenagers and I fit that fits my genre quite well as Hairspray (one of my inspirations) is a comedy musical.

'New Line Cinema' is an American film studio founded in 1967 and became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996.  The production card is a simple CGI picture of a film clip with a blue glow around it and 'New Line Cinema' written in capitals just below it. From research, New Line Cinema distributed films such as '17 Again' - a comedy for teenagers, and 'Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny' a musical comedy film.

 I created a mood board with various posters from films which were distributed by 'New Line Cinema' to show the various genres that they distribute and contrast them together. I also included two different types of the production card, a white one and a black/blue one.

Here is a URL with a list of films distributed by 'New Line Cinema': http://www.imdb.com/company/co0046718/
URL for the official 'New Line Cinema' website: http://www.newline.com/
Here is the full opening to the 'New Line Cinema' production card:

(2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our influence for the protagonist in our opening

In our film, there was only one main character. We presented our character to look happy and cheerful and based our character around Rachel from Glee.

By using high and low angle shots we were able to show the characters personality. The first low angle shot was used to make her look powerful in the city when she had just arrived and near the end, where she is about to preform the high angle shot makes her look much more timid and scared. This shows how it could be her first big audition or her first time in the city. This relates to Rachel from Glee who always wanted to be a star in the big city and plans to move their right after high school.

The rude character is usually dressed
in dull colours.

Musicals can be very stereotypical and so we dressed our character in bright colours to show she is a happy and perky person. Furthermore, the extra in our film who plays a mean character is dressed in boring, dull colours.

We planned to make our character look young to show that she is just starting her career as our film was aimed at young ambitious teenagers who enjoy musicals. Personality wise, our protagonist can also be compared to Rachel as they both presented as having a caring personality. For example, even though the extra is the one that barges into our protagonist, the protagonist is still the one that politely picks up the bag and apologises.

Finally, the music we used in our film also helped to establish our protagonists personality. It helped to show how youthful the character is and it seemed as though it was her voice we were hearing. The song was also very upbeat and showed that something happy was going on.

In conclusion, I created a mood board and juxtaposed the different characters from our researched movies and our protagonist. Some are very similar while other look completely different. You can see how most are smiling in contrast with the extra from our film. The mood board also shows how differently men are presented compared to women.

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

1.  Location and lighting:
Musicals are usually shot in major cities. For example, A Chorus Line was set in Broadway, Chicago was set in Chicago and Hairspray in New York/LA. We decided to shoot in Piccadilly Circus as there are a lot of theatres there and it is on of London's main attractions.

Piccadilly Circus

Our spotlight

 A stage or rehearsal area is also very common in musicals. Chicago uses a spotlight to make the character stand out. We also used a spotlight as we thought it was very theatrical and showed that the character was about to begin singing. We also shot in our drama studio to show she was auditioning or rehearsing. The spacious room was similar to the one in A Chorus Line which they used to rehearse for their show.

Our influence for a spotlight from Chicago.

2.  Characters and costume:

 Costumes are very important in musicals as they often stereotype a character and set the mood. Although men in Hairspray are wearing a suit, they still stick to bright colours. In A Chorus Line, all the dancers wear primary colours and this is what influenced the costume for our opening. I wore rich colours that would 'glow' when I used colour corrector during the editing process. Even though most musicals use colourful clothing I noticed that Chicago did not. The characters are mostly dressed in dark colours such as grey and black to set a more serious and mysterious atmosphere.

From A Chorus Line the characters are all enthusiastic about music and dancing. Just like in Hairspray the character of Tracy Turnblad shows her interest in music and the Corny Collins Show. Our characters facial expressions where used to show her excitement, so we made sure she smiled throughout. We also showed that she was nervous about preforming near the end just like the characters are in A Chorus Line.

3. Music:

In many musicals (especially Grease and West Side Story), the songs are part of the films narrative. We did not follow this convention, instead our character was to preform on stage and audition to be part of a musical similar to A Chorus Line and Hairspray. In our opening there is no dialogue, the music goes on throughout. We used an upbeat song that we downloaded from the 'Musical' section on a copyright-free music website. We chose an upbeat song to reflect the characters mood as from research, whatever a character sings represents their feelings. The song is sung by a teenager which can relate to our youthful character.

4. The shots we used:

Low angle shot of Corny Collins in Hairspray.



From the research we conducted before shooting we saw that high and low angle shots were very commonly used. I took screenshots of Hairspray and A Chorus Line as they used a wide range of low and high angle shots. Low angle shots were very common in musicals when the character was standing on stage with a microphone whereas the high angle shots were more common when the character was preforming and running around.

Our high and low angle shots in Big City.

We used the low angle shot at the start of our opening to show the character is powerful in the city. It also helped showing her facial expression. We used the high angle shot when she is on stage as it showed she is nervous and that she is alone with nobody around her, it also made her look timid.





Production Card

In today's Media lesson I created the Production Card on Adobe: After Effects.

I followed tutorials I found on the web which taught me how to use the software effectively. I used my double lesson to create a 6second production card.

Editing process

Today (10th February) David from my media class helped me to flip the video around horizontally which improved the continuity of our film.

Audience Feedback

Today we showed our rough cut to our target audience.

Our rough cut:

Feedback Given:

What they liked:

• Use of High Angle Shots
• Quality of our Over The Shoulder Shots
• The track used
• Our Genre was clear
• Narrative is clearly expressed

Where we need to improve:

• Some area's are shaky
• Loop the piano at the beginning of the opening
• Add Titles/Credits through long walking shots
• Change some shots to follow the 180degree rule

Monday 6th and Tuesday 7th February

On Monday I edited the footage that we recorded on Saturday. I used the Colour Corrector and worked on the title.

The day after (Tuesday) We recorded the final shots for our film. I then when to Dunraven to finish of the editing. My group mates were unable to go with me so instead I went alone. I managed to finish all the editing. I also downloaded a track from a copyright-free website.

Saturday 4th February

Preparing camera

Yasmine and Hannah preparing the camera

We met up at 10.30am and made our way together to Piccadilly Circus. We left early to avoid the 'rush' of tourists during our recording. Everything ran smoothly and we took extra shots to improve continuity. We had good weather conditions and nobody looked into the camera. The only problem we came across was that the screens appeared fuzzy on camera. Our battery was also low so we had to rush through many shots.

Me during filming

Friday 3rd February

Today we filmed the shot in Bishop Thomas Grant as I enter the reception. We found it very difficult to film as people always entered the shot. We received permission from the Deputy Headteacher to film on the premises. One problem with our shot that we will have to change is the fact that it does not follow the 180 degree rule.

Our third group member Hannah was not present during our filming as she had lessons which she was not allowed to miss.

Thursday 2nd February

  Today we attended a workshop in Lambeth CLC where we were taught the basics garageband. My groupmate Yasmine made a track for our Production Card.

The man showed us how to put a name above our track

so we were able to follow our storyboard and know which

instrument comes in at which point.

He also showed us how to make a 'self-recorded' track using vocals

or a piano. This was helpful as people could record their own footsteps

or speech.

Wednesday 1st February

Today I edited a rough cut that our group recorded on Tuesday. I was taught how to use Colour Corrector to raise the saturation.

Filming Schedule

Friday 27th January 2012 edit, could not film due to exams
Tuesday 31st January 2012 - Scene in school
Saturday 4th February 2012 - Scene by Picadilly

Practice Production Card

Click image to show animation

This is the production card I have been trying to perfect for our first shot. This is not the final one as I will try to get a different picture of the piano and add more animation.

About the image: I created during the day we were intially supposed to film but were unable to use to school hall to due exams, so instead I created a draft logo.

I used the piano as our film is a musical, to symbolise the music.

Our storyboard

The first shot is showing our production card (Piano Productions). The screen then fades to the sign of 'Piccadilly Circus', the camera pans from the sign to the stairs (entrance of underground) and you see the protagonist struggling up the stairs with the suitcase. Finally, as you exits the camera follows her from behind then a close-up of her dropping the suitcase shortly follows. You see a low angle shot to show she is superior or powerful. We see shots of the screen and city to 'pass the time'. She then walks through the street looking at a map when she bumps into somebody on the street. The person drops something and the protagonist picks it up for them.. the character barges them and walks on. The character walks into a theatre looking building and then the location switches to Bishop Thomas Grant. The character runs to the audition studio and just before a song being sang, the screen fades.

Our storyboard was five pages in total. In Piccadilly Circus we had to use quick cuts in order to avoid tourists ruining the shots.

Props that will be used in our Film Opening

The first prop we decided to use is a suitcase. We are not exactly sure of this prop as I am not sure how to bring it into school for the day. The suitcase is used to show she is foreign without having to use dialogue. The suitcase will be chunky to make it look like she has a lot of clothes, or is staying in the country.

·       The second important prop will be the a-z map of London to show that she has no idea where she is going and is new to the location. There will be  small picture of the theatre auditions to show what the person is aiming for.

Our presentation

In our presentation we spoke about our influences, research and planning. We spoke about our protagonist and the storyboard we created.

Note: Filming Dates:  Friday 27th January & Saturday 4th February 2012

Location for our Shooting

For our opening shot, it will be a picture of the underground sign, before it pans to our protagonist exiting the underground and walking up the stairs. On the picture above, the arrow shows where the character will walk after exiting the underground.

I used Google Maps to show the location as the street is not busy and you can clearly see the underground. We plan on filming when the streets are empty so that the editing will not create bad continuity shots. 

The picture on the right also shows what the shot of the characters 'point of view' will be when they are looking at the screens.

The reason that we have chosen to shoot in this area because it looks as though it was the 'fashionable' side of London. The movie is about a 'small town girl' who moves to the 'big city' for a big audition. We were considering to use Big Ben for this but have decided that it wouldn't give off the 'musical' sense of the film.

Representation of characters in Musicals

Different set of characters from Hairspray, Chicago and A Chorus Line

Above, are screenshots from the different movies that I have looked at from the same genre as the movie opening I am doing. The different clicks of characters are often very focused stereotypically and you can clearly see what sort of people they are as well as the time it is set in. Men, like the two in the top right, are in suits. Women, are often wearing brightly coloured clothes and crop tops (along with tight jeans).

Another thing I have noticed is the lighting. The camera often focuses on one person and lighting is often used to make a certain person stand out (as seen above from the screenshot of the character from Chicago). Dark lighting is rarely used and if they do choose to use it, it is only when a character is preforming.

Films within genre (influences)

During our planning for the opening, we looked at three movies from the same genre.

First was A Chorus Line which is a musical from 1975 centered around a group of Broadway dancers auditioning for spots in a famous musical. It has nineteen main characters and the location is on a Broadway theatre stage.

Second was Chicago which is a much darker type of film. Re-made in 2002 from the original in 1975, it is set in the times where Jazz was a famous type of performing. It focuses on sandal and corruption in the city of Chicago. For the analysis we focused on the original in 1975.

The last film which we looked at for influences was Hairspray. This was the most recent musical out of the three which was made in 2007. It was about a young girl from high school from Baltimore who auditions to become part of a show called 'The Corny Collins Show'. This was a reproduction of the original created in 1988 which we focused on.