Final Cut For School's Out

Our final cut.

Evaluation Question 1 - Conventions

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





My answer for question 1

Evaluation Question 2 - Representation

How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

One of our film locations

Our media product firstly is aimed at a target and secondary audience that will still be at school or college. This is important as for our film opening we have set it in a school to provide some relatability which in turn brings out stereotypes and outcast that are portrayed in a school environment. In a school stereotypically there are the cheerleaders, jocks, geeks and nerds and the misplaced.

We thought in our media product it would be important to address and show people these different social classes but also social groups. 

Our protagonist

We wanted to portray our character as the outcast so we cast her to have ginger hair as we thought this is one of the reasons sometimes that people consider them outsiders. However we enhanced her character to be not stereotypically an outsider except the fact that she wears clothes that don't match.

Film poster

We cast our male character to be popular but not in the stereotypical sense. We wanted a twist with some a-normative representation as we wanted our character to be different.

We cast him to wear a top hat and a waist coat with a shirt and trousers with smart shoes to signify his geek but we wanted him to be a character that people look up to, not a character people dismiss examples of this can be found in Pretty in Pink (1986)

Film poster

However we chose our male character to go out with the cheerleader type which does not reflect his and her character as we wanted a twist. As it would normally be represented that he would go out with our protagonist. We wanted to create a film with a twist as this is what indie companies do as they do not follow the structured conventions like the big 6 who use a formula to produce the same films over and over. Companies that do not follow this structure are warp who create social realist films with a twist this being the rom com in Submarine (Ayaode, 2010) for example

We cast the cheerleader character to be tall with long blonde hair giving off the fact she is popular by wearing a dress and wearing make up. this enabled us to then show a range of binary opposites (Levi-Strauss' concept) between the characters as we also incorporated social class between the 2 female characters the outcast being of a middle class background having more wealth and will show this by where we film as we cannot show this through her clothes as we have cast the protagonist to wear clothes that are not fashionable therefore showing her outcast and outsider look and do not signify her wealth. Whereas the cheerleader is presented to be from an upper working class background.

The binary opposites therefore we have chosen to include are:

• rich and poor
• man and woman
• popular and unpopular 

My ident showing I'm an indie production company

We also have to be aware of the fact that we don't have a lot of funds as we are a micro production company which in hand has had an impact on the way our footage has turned out. 

If we were to repeat the process we would try pick a different location to film the protagonist in her house as we didn't feel this worked looking back with retrospect we wanted to portray her as more from a working class background rather than from a more middle class background which seems to be conveyed in the film. 

However we didn't have a lot of time and therefore what we had is what we utilised which hasn't cost us greatly but has cost us in the sense that we haven't (we think) portrayed her as best we could. Genre and character types were something that we considered greatly in order to get someone that we thought would work and also look good. 

However it was something that we had to deal with as iterated before we are a micro production company and therefore we were lucky to get the characters that we did. Although not a conventional Rom-Com we feel that the indie twist was something that we wanted and we were after. 

One of the big 6 who can afford to make large productions

If we had had all the money and time in the world a stereotypical Rom-Com would have been nice to do. One of the reasons we chose to do our rom-com in the way we did was due to lack of cast and funds however it would have been nice to have been able to accentuate the outsider with glasses and bracers with freckles, but we think these are just minor adjustments. 

It would have also been nice to have the 'bitch' character as someone who was possibly taller, with longer hair and possibly wearing more make up however not everything can be achieved due to our production size. 

Duckie Style Character

For our narrative we took ideas from Pretty In Pink (1986) which we thought worked well as it didn't convey a stereotypical Rom-Com which we thought was important as we wanted to portray something that was different and contrasting but kept to the same format in some ways, we thought pretty in pink and Submarine (2010) portrayed this well and therefore we thought it could be something that we could take inspiration of because of these differences therefore showing off our indie theme and our creative flare. 

Pretty in pink

Therefore we took inspiration by using and trying to recreate the characters from pretty in pink as we thought this worked well and was a-typical. One of the characters that we took inspiration from was Duckie who was a geek who wore sunglasses, waistcoat, smart trousers and shoes, shirt and a top hat. We portrayed our version in the same way but changed the sunglasses to reading glasses to reinforce the geek character.

Pretty in pink

We also did the same for the binary character. Who wore clothes that were floral print and were contrasted in many ways which made it look like nothing matched. 

Pretty in pink

However because the film was made in the 80's we thought it would be better if the characters outfit was brought more up-to-date.

Protagonist

Therefore we chose for her to wear bright red jeans, a multicoloured checked shirt, black trainers and a long toffee cardigan over the top. We also cast her to have ginger hair which we thought really added to the anchorage of her character. However in retrospect, to really anchor lauren's (our actress) character a change of location would be necessary to signify a poorer background. Which again challenges her outcast state and represents her in a social group that would be appropriate for this. 

Theory of Uses and Gratifications:

Film Poster

In stereotypical Rom-Coms they use a variety of theories and use gratifications. They do this in order to attract an audience that will be interested in this, this is due to the fact that Rom-Coms stereotypically contain personal identity which is some way relatable in their own life but also add aspirations such as glamourous figures, which we haven't which makes ours more relatable than aspirational. Rom-Coms that follow these theories are usually referred to as the teenage/adult fairytale and this is what attracts them to the audience. An example of a film that is stereotypical to this rule would be Wild Child (2008) a binary to this would be Submarine (2010) 

Evaluation Question 3 - Distribution of My Media Product and Why

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

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This is my Prezi for Coursework question 3

Film poster 

I think for my chosen distribution company i would choose warp as they are a small indie company and will like my creativity  that i have used filming this as it is different from a standard Rom-Com which all follow the same theme.

My film is comparable to Submarine (Ayoade, 2010) which follows some of the same themes.

Evaluation Question 4 - Audience For Your Media Product

Who would be the audience for your media product?

View on Flowboard - Presentation and Storytelling Platform for iPad


This is my coursework question 4 

Evaluation Question 5 - Attracting Audience

How did you attract/address your audience?




Above is my annotations using YouTube to answer question 5.

Please make sure that the annotations are turned on for this video

It should look like this 

Evaluation Question 6 - Technologies

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





My answer to question 6

Tagging And Audiences

I created tags to draw in a wider audience to my blog in order for more people worldwide to see it. The more tags that I use the more people will see it. I wish I could have used more in order to get better numbers on my blog, but then again I am happy with the 1300+ I received! It also helped me when looking for pieces of work as it helped me find relevant posts with ease. 

tags have been added to post 

this gave me more page views

tags shown in my posts ( I got 38 views on my Bridget Jones'  Diary post) 

my tags that I have accumulated 

Evaluation Question 7 - Progression

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


Part 1





Part 2

Podcast 10

This is our 10th podcast

Audience Feedback 3

Audience feedback for rough cut 6 :





We took this from some Media A2 students who could help us to improve it and give us critical analysis in terms of cinematography

Our Sixth Rough Cut For School's Out

We have improved the audio and soundtrack and added more layering

Our Fifth Rough Cut For School's Out

This is our fifth rough cut, for this we added our soundtrack and also changed the layering of the locker slam scene so that there are 4 parts that are revealed in a dallas-style entrance.

Podcast 9

This is our 9th podcast

Our Fourth Rough Cut For School's Out

this is rough cut number 4 we have now fixed the timing issues and also audio problems that occurred.

Podcast 8

This is our 8th podcast

Audience Feedback 2

Our audience feedback for rough cut 3 


Laura - F - 14

Acting of the ginger girl was pretty good
The story, made it seem like there was hope, potential for happiness
and a feel good twist
Bad: tooth brushing?
Slo mo?
Everything else was good!
Score out of ten: 12/10!

Our Third Rough Cut For Schools Out

We have made a few improvements that we wanted to make, such as improving a few title and audio issues that occurred before. we want to add our soundtrack in the next rough cut. 


what we have changed:

we have improved the diegetic title quality 
added more school scene scenarios and reshot them for better image quality and shot variety. 
and improved the exhibition. 

Podcast 7

This is our 7th podcast

Final Cut Pro Part 5

Continuing on since the last blog post. we decided to experiment further and use the layering plus the transform tool to try it again but with 4 this time. We liked his and thought this looked different and better to the original and the second idea with the 2 scenes together.

CW:Shoot Number 3 Review

Our sole intention with this shoot was to get the shots that we were missing, such as the entrance into school and walking through the corridors. The shots that we were filming were very basic, but we still used lots of shot variety and framing techniques like we did for the 10th of march shoot. This shoot went very well for us and we got more than enough footage to use.

Here is some of the raw footage we shot:

CW:Shoot Number 3 Planning

The second side of the call sheet

The first side of the call sheet

These are the Call Sheets for Shoot 3, considering how helpful they were for Shoot 2 we decided to do some for this shoot as well.

This shoot is solely for the shots of 'Uber-Conal' walking through school and into school. We plan on including as much shot variety as we can and have even planned some of the shots that we want to vary and how we shall vary them

Podcast 6

This is our 6th podcast

CW:Shoot number 2 Review

We think that this shoot went very well and we shall definitely be employing the practices, such as the shot list, that we employed here in future shoots. We are very happy with the results that we say from this shoot and feel that, with all the shot variety and repeat filming of scenes, we have more than enough shots to choose from.

Here is some of the raw footage that we filmed:

CW:Planning For Shoot Number 2

For this shoot, we will be filming after school. As we don't want to keep actors any longer than we want to we decided to plan out the shots and what order they would be shot in. This was a very basic list and doesn't account for the different angles that we want to shoot at but we hope it will help us to work as efficiently as we can.

The first shot list

The second shot list

The third shot list

Ideal Locations

Ideal locations:




Before we consider filming dates, we are researching possible places to film. We want to have a shot of the bedroom and of (the inside and outside of) the school.

We plan on using our school, IGS, for filming. We hope to film after school, as this will mean that we have the most control over who is walking down the corridors and what is happening while we film. We also want to have shots that were different which showed off our creative side and therefore our indie background. For this we want to take inspiration from Submarine (Ayaode, 2010). We also want to have shots of down the corridor which may also include some classroom scenes 

For the bedrooms, particularly the girl's bedroom, we plan to have a space that we can pan by in order to show what the character is interested in by using mise-en-scene and therefore cutting the amount of dialogue etc, but this is not a deal-breaking requirement. We hope that the bedroom has an en-suite, as this would make the transitions while the character gets ready easier to complete.

Stereotypical teen room

We would like the bedroom to be messy and therefore it will signify a stereotypical teenagers room and show they are disorganised and therefore could suggest they are an outsider and with more anchorage of the character we feel this could be achieved. 



Location Scouting:

Lauren's Room

 We thought lauren's room worked well but because it didn't have an en-suite but also wasn't really what we were looking for due to the lack of natural light. 

Inside the front entrance 

 Although the lighting in this picture is quite dark we opened both doors for our filming to let in more light. we also wanted to film here due to the automatic doors to create a good impression of the character to make him look superior and special. 

Front Entrance 

We liked our front entrance of school with the old stone and arch way and thought to some extent it added to the glam factor that we wanted to continue as best we could despite being an indie company. 

School Scene Corridor

Most of the corridors in the 'new building' are identical to this, this was something that we wanted incase one corridor was busy when we needed to film quieter scenes this is something that we wanted and we liked the fact that they were long to get nice extreme long shots but also contained a lot of light, which was needed to get quality shots.