Evaluation 1 - in what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media?

in what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media? (e.g film openings)

 Frame one (left on the top row,) is the title of the film. Opposites. The connotations of opposites are of  course magnets and it's also a well known saying and fact that opposites attract, (foreshadowing of Kate and Aiden's relationship.) We got this idea of foreshadowing from the film Mean Girls. Also, just normally opposite means being completely different things/ people/ objects and it gives an intriguing title to think about. In our draft I suggested that we should have some reference to magnets on or around the title - because opposites attract - but instead my group decided that it should be white. After getting our feedback from the class they agreed that there should be something to do with magnets as well. Therefore the first four letters are a bright red and the last 5 are a dark blue. I thought it should have been a bright blue to make it stand out more. These colours represent a bar magnet and add to the magnet imagery. I think our title represents our film excellently because it describes and foreshadows all of the characters. 

 

Frame two (middle top row) is the setting of our film. Right at the beginning of the film we see Aiden getting in his car at his home, this gives the audience a stronger connection to Aiden because we have more knowledge about him. Most of our opening takes place at school/sixth form. There's a montage for both Aiden and Kate whilst their voiceover is on, of them walking around the school corridors.  All off the montage clips establish where the film is based and enable the audience to have an understanding of the layout of their school and could later lead to more significant settings in the film. Also there are multiple times when Aiden walks straight past Kate in the corridors (they are both ignoring each other) this helps the audience understand the foreshadowed relationship. The montage of the clips also shows the teen angst genre well because students spend a lot of time walking to their lessons. Also at the end of the clip the boys are playing football, which is a typical thing teenage boys do.

 

Frame 3 (left top row) is a screen grab of Aiden's costume. Aiden's clothing is stereotypical for a teenage boy, he's wearing a hoodie which is quite casual and jeans which is a typical outfit for a boy of his age. However his outfit is quite stylish and its thought that popular people have more trendy outfits than unpopular people. Which leads nicely onto Kate's costume, she wears a lot more comfortable looking clothes, she also looks quite warm in her body warmer this is because she dresses appropriately for the weather. She wears minimal make up - if at all - and doesn't care what others think of her. All of the characters in our opening have the same themes running through the clothing. Typical teenager clothing. They all have at least one item of clothing that is commonly worn by teenagers of our generation, making it more relatable.

 

Frame 4 (left middle row) is a screenshot of one of our titles. I thought that it was important to introduce the main characters as creatively as possible, as this will engage our audience. This idea was influenced by Easy A as they have interesting titles too. The colour of the actors name continues through the opening to make it as easy to follow as possible. For example Rahib Khan comes up on the car bonnet in a bright green colour and this colour is used again when The popular one appears later on during Aiden's voiceover. The picture I used for this however was of Bens title. We had Bens name roll out from under the tire as if it was printed on the ground, this was satisfying to watch and was effective as it linked the next clip together well.

If we were to do it again I would rearrange the titles of the actors because at the moment it goes in the order of Kate, Jessica, Aiden then Tom. This was the order that we filmed it in however looking back it would have made more sense for it to go, Aiden, Kate, Jessica, Tom as this is the order of importance, and also how other teen angst films present their titles. Also when "Lunch" appears towards the end of our opening, the background is in black and the bold larger writing is in white, referencing that school life is very repetitive and boring, e.g black and white. 

 

Frame 5 (middle middle row) is a special effect that we used. I suggested that because Aiden was driving to school, we could use the number plate as a way to present the title. I tried putting all of our names into the style of the number plate and my group thought that my name looked and fitted the best, it only appears when the camera focusses on the bottom of the car, but it still looks satisfying to watch. If we were to add any more special effects I would try and add something when the football hits Kate.

 

Frame 6 (right middle row) is how the two main characters are introduced. It opens with Aiden so this indicates that he is the main character, when he gets to school we hear his voiceover in which he says his name and social status. There's also text that appears on the screen to emphasise this even more. During his montage there's multiple shots of him walking beside or near Kate. As they pass each other several times it tells the audience that she could be important to the story. And as it happens she is, in her voiceover she explains who she is and her social status and this shows the audience that these two people are complete opposites. As these two characters are the only people who get voiceovers it shows the audience that they are the main characters  which hopefully made the audience think that there could be a romance between the two.

 

Frame 7( left bottom row) is of our camera work and editing. The picture I used is during Kate's voiceover, its a clip were produced by appears on the screen. We positioned the camera so that each of our names could sit on the stairs and as I walked down the stairs, each name swiped away. We  put the writing in a  dark blue colour to match the colour used on our title. However looking at our final draft the text doesn't stand out so if we were to do it again I would suggest a lighter blue so its easier to read.  On our final draft we faded all of the names at the same time so if we were to do it again I would swipe them out alternately from left and right. 

 

Frame 8 (middle bottom row) is a picture that shows the genre and how the opening suggests it. In our opening, we see Aiden driving off which automatically shows how old he is as you have to be a certain to drive. We also see Aiden and Kate around the school, indicating its a teen film. Also at the end of the opening the boys are playing football which is a sport associated with teenagers. Our opening clearly shows that the genre is teen angst as we establish it's set in a school, and the main characters are young adults.

 

Frame 9 (left bottom row) is about how it sets the rest of the film up. This picture is of Aiden speedily driving down his road, it shows he is probably late and needs to get to school. We see a montage of him walking around his school and not recognising/ acknowledging Kate. Both of their voiceovers sometimes parallel each other but at the same time juxstar pose what the other is saying. At the end of the opening Aiden accidently kicks the football at Kate, this is quite funny but it is also the first time that the two main characters have any interaction.