1)

Our film is of the chick-flick and comedy genre; therefore we researched into films of the same genres and applied similar conventional aspects to ours, as well as challenging some of the aspects.

In the well known chick-flick 'Mean Girls' the characters included are stock characters (Propp's theory) such as the stereotypical main popular girl which is conventional to our genre and the setting of a secondary school. The film 'Mean Girls' also includes a stereotypical 'blonde unintelligent' female, just as in our film the protagonist is an unintelligent blonde girl, which could be found humorous to the audience due to it being so stereotypical. Another stock character (Propp's theory) included in our film is the bully, which is a common character in films set within a school, as it is realistic due to there usually being at least one bully at every school, therefore making it easy for the audience to identify with this character as they may know a bully, be a result of bullying or happen to be a bully themselves. Another conventional character down to the chick-flick and comedy genre is the geek, who may provide humour for the audience due to the stereotypical glasses and unusual look, creating the geek to stand out. In the films 'High School Musical' and 'Mean Girls', there is an attractive popular boy, who usually has dark hair and a big smile, therefore we included this in our film, as it is often featured in chick-flicks, and may attract females to watch our film. It is also conventional for the popular girl in the school to have feelings for the popular boy, as would have happened later on in our film if it were longer than just an opening sequence.

A conventional feature of chick-flicks with a teenage target audience is the setting of a school featured somewhere within the film. Films such as 'Ten Things I Hate About You' and 'Easy A' include this, as does our film 'The Arrangement' feature this school setting throughout, as the likely teenage target audience will identify with the setting (uses and gratification theory) therefore being more likely to understand the narrative.

The general theme of love and friendships is widely featured in chick-flicks and comedies such as 'The Notebook', 'Bridget Jones's Diary' and 'The Proposal'. Therefore we included it in our film, as the majority of the audience will be able to relate to these themes of love and friendships as many of them have been through it themselves. The overall plot of our film can be viewed as conventional due to friendships being made, school work being overdue, feeling inferior to the teacher and ending up in detention, which is all easily relatable to teenagers who will be able to identify with this part of the narrative.

The shots we have included in our film, such as an establishing shot to establish the scene at the beginning of our opening sequence, is conventional and used in many movies, including comedies and chick-flicks. Within the film 'Mean Girls', a long shot of the stereotypical popular girls walking together is used, as we have featured in our opening sequence, to present the character's confidence as they walk, suggesting their social status within the school. Another shot which is included in 'Mean Girls' is a close up of the character of the popular boy, which we have also included in our film, to present him as a main character and love interest, as this shot stands out compared to others.

Many chick-flicks include a voice over of the protagonist, such as 'Easy A' as it helps the narrative to be understood quicker. We therefore used a voice over in our opening sequence as the audience will relate and hold empathy for the protagonist, creating a personal relationship, as the story is coming from her perspective.

In the film 'Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging' the soundtrack used is a pop song, as stereotypically teenagers like pop music over other genres of music. Furthermore, from doing our questionnaires earlier on in the year, the majority of people would enjoy our film more if there was a pop soundtrack, so we have used a pop song in our opening sequence as it may attract to a teenage audience and is conventional to the chick-flick genre.

In the film 'Easy A' the typography of the titles are white, as the colour connotes innocence and youth, as well as being a unisex colour, appealing to both genders. As this film and other chick-flick's such as 'Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging' have featured white typography, we decided it would be successful if we used it too as it is conventional to our genre. The titles in the chick-flick '10 Things I Hate About You' had a sketched affect to them, as it mirrors a teenager's busy and frantic life, full of confusion, as well as a pencil, relating to the school setting. We used a similar typography for our opening sequence, as our setting is also of a school with teenagers, so it fitted in with our narrative.

The lighting in our film is conventional, due to there being no dark moments and only light. Dark moments don't tend to be included in chick-flicks or comedy's as it may change the mood of the audience. They are more likely to be included in horror films, to create a dark atmosphere.

The clothing of the characters are conventional more to an American chick-flick as they do not have school uniform and present their characters in their own clothes, as we have done. The clothing the characters are wearing are casual and modern, which a teenage audience may identify with, rather than a school uniform.

Our film being titled ‘The Arrangement’ is conventional to the chick flick genre as many chick flicks include ‘The’ in their title to make it specific. Films such as ‘The Proposal’, ‘The Mask’ and ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ all include this in their titles, therefore we thought it would be a good idea to do the same. Furthermore ‘Arrangement’ in our title suggests that this film will present the process of an arrangement which could change things- creating an enigma code.

Although we did include the themes of love and friendship in our film, it is not the main narrative of 'The Arrangement', which challenges the conventions of the genres of chick-flicks and comedies, as love and friendship is usually included in the main narrative, for example in the film 'Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging'. The narrative of our film is based around the idea of the protagonist's teacher planning on killing her, forming together a team of opposite personalities (Binary Oppositions). This is unconventional because the main theme of death is usually not included in a chick-flick narrative set within a school. Furthermore, a group of opposite stock characters (Propp's theory) getting together, in this case a popular girl, a geek, a bully

and a popular boy usually does not happen within films as it can be viewed as unrealistic in the real world.

The character of the bully being a female is unconventional due to the bully usually being a male, as men are stereotypically more dominant, strong and threatening. This puts females in a different light, and is against the theory of 'The Male Gaze' as our film suggests that women can be dominant, threatening and strong, which is unconventional. The fact that the film is set in the UK rather than the stereotypical American chick-flick such as 'Easy A' and 'Mean Girls' challenges the conventions of our genre as the stereotypical attractive popular girl is usually not featured in UK based films as much as American films as it is more of an American stereotype. The popular 'school diva', being the protagonist of our film is unconventional as they are usually an unlike able vindictive character, unlike in our film when the popular girl directly addresses the audience, allowing them to empathise with her.

We included close-up shots in between scenes, to help establish the setting, such as the shot of the school alarm and of the pencils in the staffroom. This is not usually featured in films, and more likely to be featured in television programmes such as Chris Lilley's 'Summer Heights High', however, these shots allow the audience to identify with our film, as they can perhaps relate to some of the surroundings if they have any of them at their school.

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

Our film 'The Arrangement' represents many different social groups, creating Binary Oppositions within our narrative.

We have presented females in an unconventional way, as the bully of the film, who is a Stock Character is a female rather than a male which suggests that women can be strong and intimidating rather than males. The bully in our opening sequence 'Carla', is a mixed-race small girl, which is stereotypically not to be a bully as bullies are more likely to be tall as it is seen as more threatening. This was created as a Hypodermic Needle, to inject the idea of women being as strong as men, if not stronger into the passive audience. Carla comes from a bad background, stereotypically from a lower class family, therefore making her an angry person, wanting to take control and hurt others. Carla is presented as superior to the viewer as the low angle shot of her shouting at the 'geek' of the film, presents her above us as if we are inferior, suggesting that she is the bully. Not only is the bully not liked by students, but teachers too, as in the staffroom scene Carla is getting shouted at by one of her teachers. The body language of her crossed arms and her stern facial expression suggests that she is not bothered about being told off, perhaps because her family would not care either. Once the main character 'Sophie' enters the staffroom, Carla pushes past her, suggesting she is not scared of the popular girl and does not care who she upsets. Furthermore, Carla is seen bullying a male in the opening sequence of our film, challenging the stereotype of males being stronger than females, suggesting Carla is fearless.

The character of the geek, Jimmy, is a tall Caucasian boy who comes from a middle class family, living with his three brothers, his mum and his dad. It is stereotypical for

the geek to wear glasses and be reading a book, therefore we thought it would be humorous to include this in our film. The mid-shot of the bully looking down on Jimmy creates the geek to seem inferior and weak to the audience, therefore it is immediately suggested to the audience who his character is. The footage of Jimmy getting pushed to the ground further suggests that he is inferior to the bully and will not stand up for himself as geeks stereotypically do not. The scared facial expression of the geek suggests that he is feeling weak and is scared of the bully, creating a binary opposition between the two characters.

The character of the 'popular boy' Joe lacks intelligence and is admired by all of the girls at the school. He comes from an upper class Caucasian family and therefore believes he is better than most, only liking the popular girls at the school. Joe is known for being a bit of a player, changing his girlfriend's frequently and craves attention from his friends and girls. The first shot of Joe is a long shot of him playing football with his friends, suggesting he is sporty and likes to show off as he does multiple kick-ups. The popular boy being sporty is stereotypical as girls stereotypically like a sporty, strong boy who are good at what they do. A close up shot of Joe is presented as he winks, suggesting that he is confident and flirty. This close up also tells the audience that he is a main character in the film as we can clearly see his facial expression as the actor's name appears on the screen.

Lastly of the main characters, is the protagonist Sophie, who also comes from an upper class Caucasian family, although she dresses casually. She is first presented in an establishing shot of her room, sitting down reading, which initially suggests to the audience that she is intelligent, however this changes through out the film. In the next scene, the high angle shot of Sophie suggests that in some ways, she is inferior to the audience, suggesting something could happen to her. In this shot she seems frantic and stressed as she is chasing after her papers, and running off, further suggesting that something is not right. In the last scene, Sophie seems rather argumentative as she talks back to her teacher, suggesting she is persistent as a character. The shots between Sophie and the teacher makes it seem as if both of them are equal, however this changes to a high angle shot of Sophie walking out of the staffroom, suggesting she is inferior, and perhaps in trouble. The last shot of Sophie is a close up shot, looking confused and worried as she plays what the teacher had told her through her head, over thinking what could happen to her. This suggests that Sophie is unintelligent as she is thinking far too much into things and worries a lot due to her facial expression. Through out the opening sequence, it is not obvious that Sophie is one of the popular girls, as we do not see her with the popular group at any time, but this would have later been included into our narrative if the film were longer.

Women being presented in an unconventional way is furthered when it is suggested that the female teacher 'Ms Graham' could potentially be a murderer, however this is not included in our opening sequence. The potential murderer of a film is usually a male as they are presented as strong and powerful, therefore we have changed this idea, making it less stereotypical. We presented the profession of the teachers such as 'Ms Graham' to be more important and dominant than the students as it is more realistic. We did this by using the high angle shot of Sophie as if she were inferior to Miss Graham and by the male teacher shouting at Lola and towering above her. However, as the students try to harm a member of staff throughout the rest of the narrative, the representation of the teacher is less conventional as the students try to

over dominate her. The teachers within our film, are presented in smarter, more dull clothes than the students, suggesting that they follow the rules and are professional, opposing the idea of the teacher murdering a student. The teachers look as if they are in their thirty's, suggesting they are older than the students, making it clear to the audience that they are teachers and are of different standing in the school to the students.

As the characters in our film all wear their own clothes rather than uniform, social class can be easily suggested, rather than if they were wearing uniform. However, no characters stand out in what they wear as they all dress like stereotypical seventeen year olds. Therefore, the audience cannot guess their social standing, making their clothing to be more realistic and identifiable as the viewers could relate to the modern and casual clothing (uses and gratification). We did this because we did not want to detract from the narrative of our film, to create it to be about social status, rather than binary oppositions of characters working together.

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

First of all, we would market our film by putting up billboards around the UK, posters on London busses, posters in the London underground, a website for the film, magazine interviews for teenage magazines such as 'Teen Vogue' or 'Top Of The Pops' magazine and a premiere at the O2 in London. This should attract our teenage target audience, as they are always on public transport, as they are unable to drive, reading magazines and online.

Nickelodeon Movies could distribute and potentially fund 'The Arrangement' because they distributed 'Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging'. 'Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging' is based in a school in the UK, as is ours and it is of the comedy genre. Nickelodeon Movies also distributed Fun Size and Hotel for dogs which are both targeted at a young teenage audience, as is ours, therefore they will gain us the correct audience we are targeting. Our film being distributed by Nickelodeon Movies would be of good distribution as it being an American company, has more money than a British based company. Furthermore, Nickelodeon will attract a teenage target audience as Nickelodeon is associated with young people, of both genders.

We would distribute our film firstly at the BFI London Film Festival, where many different people would go to view ours and may other peoples films. This would only cost a small fee of about £40 and it mean that we would attract a wide audience to watch our film, including people who would not usually watch a similar film. Next we would distribute 'The Arrangement' at a multiplex cinema in the UK in February half term. We think people in the UK would be most interested in our film as they will be able to relate to it (uses a gratification theory) and understand the school system over American teenagers. We would release it at cinemas in February half term to attract teenagers during their break as many visit the cinema when not in the school term. I decided against releasing it in Summer as students tend to want to forget about school in summer, therefore may not want to watch a film including the setting of a school.

Once it has been distributed at the cinema we will distribute it through Region 1 and Region 2 DVDs three months later, giving the people in different countries such as

America a chance to buy and watch the DVD, as well as the UK. We will then release it on other media platforms such as iTunes and Netflix as the use of the internet to watch films on is increasing, therefore our audience shall expand as people can then view our film on many different devices such as phones or tablets. Once the DVD has been out on sale for four months, we will distribute it on Sky Movies ,Channel 5 and Nickelodeon in the UK so the film is able to be watched for free, and if they enjoy the film they can then purchase it online in DVD format. It will be viewed on Nickelodeon so the production company can advertise their film and gain more credit for it.

If we needed a UK based distributor instead of Nickelodeon, we would choose Working Title, as they are a British independent company, however they have financial backing from Universal therefore can afford distributing it. Working Title have produced many successful films, including Les Miserables, Johnny English, Nanny Mcphee and Wild Child. Wild Child is of a teenage target audience, set within a school as is ours, and had great success, just as our film would be able to have with the same distributors.

4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for our opening sequence is teenage boys and girls as our film is a 12 certification. However, it is likely that the stereotyped target audience for our media product will be mostly teenage girls, as they can identify with the female protagonist of the film (uses and gratification theory), wanting to be like her or look like her, or even being in similar social situations such as a popular girl at school.

Furthermore, the soundtrack in our opening sequence is sung by two girls of the group and is a remake of the pop song 'Pack Up' by Eliza Doolittle, which is more likely to attract females. Boys are less likely to watch this film, as stereotypically males do not watch chick-flicks or enjoy pop music much, however they may find the protagonist attractive and that therefore may encourage them to watch it. The partial shots of football being played and the popular boy may also attract boys to watch 'The Arrangement' as they can identify with his character (uses and gratification theory).

The audience is likely to be teenagers as the main setting of our film is at a secondary school, rather than a primary school or a University, attracting the age group which would attend a secondary school as they can relate to the surroundings and characters included (uses and gratification theory.)

We did not include any discrimination, drugs, sex or nudity in our film, therefore according to BBFC criteria, it is not above a certification of a 12. This means that children as young as twelve are suitable to view our film, although there is a limited thriller element included in the narrative with the theory of Ms Graham being a murderer and the group of main characters planning on getting rid of her beforehand. It is rated a 12 rather than a PG due to the moderate language included in our film and the imitable behaviour with the mention of murder. However, we did not want our film being rated higher than a 12, as we would not want to offend people with bad language or glamorising drugs, along with not wanting to prevent younger teenagers to watch our film.

Ideal target audience

FemaleHannah is a 15 year old girl who attends a public secondary school full time to study

her GCSEs. She is currently studying Science, English, Maths, Media, History, Spanish and ICT, gaining Bs in her mocks and enjoys it very much. She also enjoys

watching films, reading books such as Twilight and any book by the author John Green. She also likes being with her friends in her spare time, shopping in New Look,

ice-skating and playing tennis. Her favourite films are Mean Girls, The Notebook, Dear John and Wild Child, as she watches them all on Netflix. Hannah's favourite

music is pop music which she downloads of iTunes, favouring the artist Justin Bieber. Her mother and father both work and she lives in a semi-detached house in South

London.

MaleMark is a 14 year old boy from a middle class family. He is living with his two sisters

and his single mother in Manchester. He is in full time education and hopes to be a hairdresser when he is older. In his spare time Mark enjoys playing football and

playing murder mystery games such as 'Murder & Mayhem' with his friends. He also likes going to the cinema with his family, watching television every night after school and shopping in Topman, as he enjoys fashion. His favourite music is pop music and R&B, purchasing all of his songs off of iTunes, with his favourite artist being Chris Brown. Films he enjoys watching on DVD include Batman, High School Musical,

and Mean Girls with his sisters, as they enjoy that too.

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

We have made our overall product appeal to our teenage audience through the use of our soundtrack. Our soundtrack was recorded by Rina and Shyanne and produced by me of a cover of the song 'Pack Up' by Eliza Doolittle. This song is a pop song and therefore shall be appealing to teenagers as the original has been in the charts, which many teenagers listen to, therefore they will know the lyrics. Furthermore, if people know originally that an Eliza Doolittle song will be featured in our film, and they are fans of her, it may attract them to watch our film (Dyer's Star Theory).

The typography of our titles is white and therefore will appeal to both genders of teenagers as it is a unisex colour. Furthermore, the titles of our opening sequence inform the audience of our genre through the curved, slightly swirled typography as this is usually associated with chick-flicks, rather than bold, black typography. In addition, the titles inform the audience of the actors and actresses involved with our film as the character they play is presented on screen, as well as who produced the film.

The shots of the school and within the school, for example the shots of the different groups of characters will appeal to our audience as they will be able to identify with the surroundings and relate to it (uses and gratification theory). Furthermore, the shot in the staffroom of the teacher telling of the bully may be identifiable to the audience, as they themselves may have been told off by a teacher and then can relate to this moment (Barthes).

The character of Sophie would attract teenage girls, who are popular themselves or perhaps want to be popular, due to the Sophie being liked in the school in our film. Furthermore, we created Sophie to wear casual and normal clothes so girls watching the film can identify with her clothing (uses and gratification), and feel as if they can become her character as she does not wear expensive, designer clothes. The character of Joe attracts both males and females to watch our film, as the female audience may be attracted to Joe and therefore would want to watch on, while the male audience may want to be like Joe. They may look up to the character of Joe and want to be popular and sporty just like him and feel that watching our film could help them get inspiration. The character of Lola, the bully, could attract either people who have or are bullies to our film as they relate to the character, or people who want to avoid being bullied. Lastly, Jimmy, the geek character, could attract people who are 'geeks' themselves and can identify with the character or people who may find the geek attractive and therefore want to watch it, as people have different likes in boys.

The narrative of our film is unconventional as the idea of a killer teacher has not been used before in a well-known film. This would attract our audience as that part of the narrative is fresh and new, but they can fall back on the stereotypical characters and school setting if they do not enjoy that part of the narrative. In our product we have presented the genres of chick-flick and comedy through the close up of the main love interest 'Joe' winking at the girls in the distance as this is found humorous and also flirtatious which would be featured in a chick-flick. Furthermore, the voice over is usually featured in chick-flicks such as 'Easy A' rather than other films such as horror films. This suggests that our film is of the chick-flick genre.

The end of our opening sequence ends on a cliff-hanger, as the audience wonder what the teacher will do to the character Sophie. Furthermore, the beginning of the film when the opposite stock characters are friends, creates mystery to the audience as they wonder why such different people are together, this makes the audience want to watch on, creating an Enigma Code.

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

To film our product we used a Canon DSLR camera and a tripod to keep the camera balanced and steady. When filming our product, we altered the focus and the depth of field on the camera lens to create certain parts of the footage to be out of focus. Altering the focus with manual focus created movement in still shots, such as the shot of the school, which therefore made for better transition from one shot to the other. It also creates the audience to feel more involved in our film, for example when the character of the geek was putting back on his glasses and the bully came from out of

focus, into focus as if the glasses made the viewer's vision clear. Once we had filmed our scenes we got an SD card reader and uploaded our footage to iPhoto on the Apple Mac computers and then opened the footage in Final Cut Express.

We edited our whole movie as a group in Final Cut Express and experimented with a lot of this, cutting shots in different ways and using different sequences of shots together. For example, we filmed many different shots of the different social groups at the school and put them all together so the audience could identify with one of those social groups (uses and gratification theory.) We had difficulty with one shot as the main character Sophie was wearing something in one shot and not in the previous one, however the actress was unable to reshoot the scene as she was on a school trip, so we experimented and figured out how to crop out the ID badge she was wearing, creating the final product to have continuity, which makes the narrative seem more realistic to the audience, as if there are no cameras there and it is not set up. We also decided on having a flashback at the end of our opening sequence to create a non linear narrative and therefore copy and pasted some of the shots to the end of our product, reversed them and fast-forwarded them. We also decided on putting an effect on the last part of footage to make it seem like the main character Sophie was over thinking things and light headed due to the ripple effect. We also learnt how to slow down clips and how to make them faster to make them flow and fit together well, cut them, create a still shot of them and overlap them to create a more interesting product to watch, and so the product could flow more, all on Final Cut Express.

Next we recorded the voice over of the main character's voice using the recording studio. Rina recorded the voice over into a microphone in the recording studio, as I produced it using the programme Cue Base. We then exported it as a WAV file and saved it, then imported it to Final Cut Express and put it under our footage. We cut out parts of the voice over which we did not need and moved parts around to get it in the correct places.

Next Shyanne and Rina recorded the soundtrack of the song 'Pack Up' by Eliza Doolittle which I got emailed permission to use from her record label. They recorded it in the recording studio as I edited it, overlapping parts and adding parts on Cue Base. We then exported it and uploaded it onto Final Cut Express with our footage. Shyanne worked out how to make parts of the soundtrack quieter and louder on Final Cut Express by double clicking on the soundtrack and moving the levels up and down on the graph provided, so we could hear the dialogue and voice over, which made the product flow more.

Lastly I created the titles for the opening sequence using LiveType, choosing the right typography, colour, positioning and transition. The typography we decided on was white due to it being conventional for our genre and unisex, therefore appealing to both genders. The typography is sketched, symbolising a teenager's busy and confusing life, while mirroring the setting of the school with the idea of stationary. The titles of the actors are positioned in the right bottom corner so the footage can still be viewed, while the title of the film and the producers are centred on a black screen to present the importance of this, to advertise our company. Lastly, I exported the text and overlapped it onto our footage, again on Final Cut Express and moved it into the correct places needed, rendering the product.

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

Firstly in the preliminary task, we created a storyboard to plan which shots we were going to film and what dialogue would be included in the final piece. This understanding of planning and storyboards helped when it came to producing our full product, as we then knew how to plan correctly and understood why it was so important to do so, because planning did save a lot of time. Some of our original planning for our opening sequence was changed for the final product as some things would not have fit into our two minute time range, but we did not have this problem with the Preliminary task and therefore did not know how to deal with it immediately.

For the filming of the preliminary task, we used a Libec tripod and dolly which was helpful when getting from one half of the 180 degree line to the other. We also used the Libec tripod and dolly when filming the staffroom scene in our full product, as there was a conversation between the protagonist 'Sophie' and 'Miss Graham'. The dolly helped us to level the camera correctly, making our footage straight for the viewer to watch, this information we then took with us when filming the full product so we could get a perfect image. This made the process of using the Libec tripod and dolly in our opening sequence quicker as we knew how to use it to it's full capacity. Understanding the 180 degree rule in the preliminary task helped when it came to conversations within our opening sequence as we then knew not to cross the imaginary line. This created the film to flow and seem like a realistic conversation.

Next, we used 'Final Cut Express' to edit our preliminary task which helped a lot when editing our film's opening sequence, as we knew the basic cutting and sound techniques, although editing our opening sequence was much more complex.

After that was completed, I created the titles for our names in the preliminary task on 'LiveType' which made it a much quicker process when creating the titles for our opening titles as I knew the basic rules of sizing and timing, although I still had to experiment with the different transitions, colours and typography.

Finally, we created a soundtrack on 'GarageBand' to be playing in the background for our titles, however this did not help the soundtrack of our full product as we made using the programme CuBase, but it did help our sound affect of the school bell, which we found on the programme 'GarageBand'.

We figured out that it is very important to re-shoot footage as we did so twice when filming our full product. The first time being when the sun overexposed the footage, therefore we had to change the ISO on settings and were lucky to re-shoot on a day with more suitable weather. Lastly when the footage in the bedroom scene was too dark but we didn't realise until editing it, therefore we again had to re-shoot the footage on a different day and controlled the lighting better. It is also important to re-shoot to get the perfect images for the viewer so they get a better understanding of the narrative, creating the film to flow more, allowing it to be easily watched and therefore more likely to be enjoyed. We did not come across the problem of re-

shooting in our preliminary task, therefore it was new when we had to do it in our full product.