Media powerpoint evaluation Jodie-Mae Howard

White Street

JODIE-MAE HOWARD

What are the conventions of social drama?

From research of social drama trailers and films, I found that the typical conventions would be serious emotion from the characters alongside slow pace and deep music throughout. Although I have used these in my trailer, using slow motion at the beginning, showing the important issues involved in social drama such as violence and bad behaviour, I challenged the trailer Trainspotting which showed the consequences of social drama in a brighter light with fast pace editing and humour.

Conventions of social drama: Slow pace editing Slow music Deep emotion shown by characters Dark lighting Mise-en-scene mostly being rough areas (building estates, abandoned parks) Clothing such as dark coloured hoodies, and tracksuit bottoms Foul language Violence and bad behaviour shown

In what ways does your trailer develop or challenge forms and conventions of real trailers?

• Social drama films such as Trainspotting uses a fast pace, usually to promote the adrenaline and the humour of the troubles of social drama.

• To challenge this, my trailer starts with a slow pace, builds up to show the danger of my characters situation, and uses deep questions to make the audience think and consider.

Slow motion at the beginning

In what ways does your trailer challenge forms and conventions of real trailers?With Trainspotting being a humorous trailer with the problems hidden in the film and less shown in the trailer, I used my trailer to show the danger of society, and used no humour to portray this. Instead I found that having my characters show dangerous actions and being affected, showed the idea of society ruining the lives of the youth.

Here I showed the dangers of drugs when being handled by the youth

With showing drugs being passed amongst a group, I challenged the idea of society pressuring people to fit into the society that is difficult to live in for the youth

In what ways does your trailer challenge the forms and conventions of real trailers?Whilst Trainspotting showed the funny but reckless outcomes of taking drugs and acting in violence, I wanted to show the serious side of the consequences. With Trainspotting showing the consequences in a humorous way, I wanted to show the idea that involving yourself in serious matters when it comes to society can come to you ruining yourself.

To show this, I filmed one of my male characters in desperation to tie the belt. Showing the dangers of becoming so involved in drugs and the dangers of society that it comes to yourself ruining yourself.

In what ways does your trailer challenge forms and conventions of real trailers?

In contrast to Trainspotting, the lighting in my trailer differs to the lightning in the Trainspotting trailer. In trainspotting it creates an almost relaxed feel, maybe showing the relaxation you feel under the influence of the drugs. However I wanted to highlight the idea of the dark society people fall in to, and by doing this challenged the lighting.

In what ways does your trailer develop or challenge forms and conventions of real trailers?• With the Trainspotting trailer the music is upbeat and fast, the talking is

slow and precise, almost to create the feel of adrenaline. The scenes are short and quick, and to challenge this, I used slow music, only to build the beat quicker at the serious moments to create anxiety, and the voice over is slow and spaced out, almost as if the character doesn’t know what to say. I also follow up my voice over into a scene to help the audience connect with the depth of the speech by seeing the character speak

Here I’ve used the voice over to connect to a scene so the audience can see the emotion and hurt in the words.

How effective is the combination of your main product to your ancillary task?In what ways does your trailer develop or challenge forms and c conventions of real trailers?With ensuring the idea of the darkness of society, I’ve used dark colours on my movie magazine front cover and movie poster, as well as using dark lighting in my film

I've used a close up here to ensure not much lighting enters the picture, and having black white and red text compliments the lack of lighting

I’ve used dark lighting in the film to highlight the seriousness and darkness

• https://mysite.williamdeferrers.essex.sch.uk/personal/07howardj/Advanced%20production/Lists/Photos/_w/Kidulthood%20movie%20poster_jpg.jpg

I challenged the conventions of a movie magazine by using a close up of one person instead of lots of characters here. And on my movie poster I challenged this convention by using a close up of my characters arm with a belt. I hoped this would entice my audience and create a mystery around this photo and the meaning and story behind it. I researched film posters of films with the same conventions as social drama and with that research was able to create a movie poster with the same conventions.

Dark colours

Evidence of violent weapons

Conventional clothing such as caps and tracksuits

Tagline gives evidence of a dangerous area for youths


By challenging the Kidulthoods movie poster conventions, I went for a landscape style and used an arms instead of a face to create curioueity and interest to my audience to cause them to question the story behind this picture. This would also appeal to my target audience as they would want to see some mystery and to be able to question the possibilites this film may show

I still had my character dress in darker colours to create the darkness and danger effect.

Use of belt and arm to challenge the conventions of showing each character and their emotions.


The Trainspotting movie poster challenges all the conventions of a social drama movie poster. However again I challenged this by not using faces to show my characters and their emotions.

The movie poster Nil By Mouth shows brighter colours than grey and blacks, however they are dull brighter colours, to possibly emphasise the dullness of society and even though it is rough people still try to make light through the dark

In what ways does your trailer develop or challenge forms and conventions of real trailers?

• With the picture on my movie magazine and movie poster, I have used a close up of an arm with a belt, in able to capture my audiences attention and to make them question what this film may be about, considering the title doesn’t give much away. At the end of my film, after showing the rough outline, do I then introduce the title to the trailer. This is to again make my audience question what the film could be about.

In what ways does your trailer develop or challenge conventions of real trailers?

• With the constant reference to the belt in my film, it connects to my movie magazine so it helps the audience to understand that this is a serious film showing self harming on one individual, which has been influenced by society.

Both pictures show two characters using the same method but with different reactions to show the affects it has on them. For instance the main female characters rushing to get the belt on at a high angle shot to show her vulnerability, the main male character is looking desperately down, almost looking guilty of his actions


• Both products are appealing to a audience of who enjoy something deep and serious, making you feel deeper into the situation and consequences. For the movie magazine, an audience whom are interested in other movies with social drama

Here I have attracted an audience whom would be interested in other social drama and poor society related movies

With a image of a close up of one of my main characters, I am aiming to attract audience of an older age range who would find mystery in this person in the photo whilst also attaching themselves to them from the vulnerable timid expression


How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary task?Based on all research and audience feedback, my film and ancillary task mostly complimented each other, with effective connotations suited for what I wanted to portray.

Dark lighting used for the mise en scene for all products.

From the viewing of drug references, my film and ancillary task both aim for a older mature target audience. The use of showing the belt doesn’t show much depth of how the drug ‘heroin’ is used but the tasks are still aimed for an older age range who have an understanding of the consequences and problems that occur in social drama films.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary task?

Expanding on the target audience, I aimed my film for those who have an interest in mysterious deep situations, and an older ages group, therefore my films use of signs of violence and drug use links to the plugs on my movie magazine where it promotes horror films, therefore aiming for an older audience.


Looking closely at connotations of social drama, I have included these with the hint of drug use but also dark lighting and dark clothing on my movie poster and film magazine and including my film.

Dark clothing usually seen on youth in a rough society.

References to drugs.

References to drug use from the belt and dark lighting and clothing.


What have I learnt from audience feedback?

• With the lack of facilities, a few of my scenes from my storyboard had to be cut short or completely cut, but with some advice I came to the conclusion that having short quick scenes was more appealing to my target audience.

With the series of close up shots of my main girl and my main boy I wanted to show them forming a close relationship and to show their emotions, my target audience said they would prefer not to be shown their close relationships but instead to be curious as to how the characters relate and what the story of them is. I took this advice, and didn’t let the characters interact, to create a sense of curiosity for my audience.


To show the rough areas that youths patrol everyday, I asked my audience whether they’d like to see the characters under the influence of alcohol in clubs, or whether they'd like to see buildings to create the sense of a rough area. From the results I used a range of indoors and outdoors, and used an alleyway instead of buildings to create being alone and away from civilisation, and when filming, the area and lighting made the scene more eerie and threatening. With filming inside a club toilet it shows a secluded area in which a youth can go to feed their obsession.


Inside the club toilet I used a range of shots from high angle to medium close ups in order to make the audience sympathise with the character and the toilet shows to be quite dirty, showing a secluded poorly used area.

A high amount of my target audience wanted to hear a voice over, so I created that to connect in to a scene to help sympathise with the character.

• With the audiences belief my trailer would be in depth when it came to involving the issues of drugs, I drew out a few scenes with use of drugs and violence, however limited this in my trailer as I felt too many scenes involving the use of drugs would be too much and it would also give a lot of the plot away, where I would like to keep my audience wondering and excited.

My storyboard shows the girl sitting amongst drugs, and the use of guns

My audience expected my trailer to be a 15, so in order to show the seriousness of drugs and the issues involved, I cut the scenes from my storyboard and made the issues less shown.


These shots of close ups and over the shoulder are quick and promote weak actions of taking drugs, smoking etc. by limiting these shots and cutting them from my storyboard it also doesn’t give much of the storyline away.


I asked my audience what type of ending they would like to see, a cliff-hanger or a specific ending. The results came in close, and with the storyboard I aimed to have the specific ending showing the down fall of the female character. However, during editing and filming, I found closing of my trailer without the audience knowing would be more interesting and would entice them in to watching the film

Here is a specific ending on my storyboard showing the downfall of my female character.


How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

For my movie poster, I was able to see what conventions to use from research for a social drama movie poster, therefore experimenting with dark lighting and shadows on Photoshop mostly through strokes or drop shadows on my text.

Research in to the Kidulthood movie poster helped me plan my mise en scene and correct dark clothing

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, and planning and evaluation stages?

For my movie magazine, Photoshop helped me create the dark lighting and seriousness of my photo, although my photo does not make eye contact making her look more vulnerable.

Total film uses an intimidating photo, and dark lighting.

My magazine uses a vulnerable photo but also dark lighting.

How did you use new media technologies in construction and research, and planning and evaluation stages?

Adobe premiere allowed me to use short quick scenes by using the scissor tool to edit and cut scenes, so like the Trainspotting trailer I was able to edit short scenes to create pace whether fast or slow.


When using Photoshop to create my movie magazine and film I used many tools to help make it as creative as possible. I experimented with the shots of my movie poster when taking the picture.

With experimenting with the shot, I tried it at a titled angle to create some intrigue and to catch more shadow under the belt for lighting and dark conventions


After experimenting with different angles for my movie poster photo, I took a photo of the same arm and belt and clothing but at a portrait angle. I deliberately included the scar of my actors arm to create a mystery for my audience and a more realistic approach to my chosen genre, focusing closely on the realistic dangers of it.


With experimenting on different ways to show my photo, I experimented with cropping out the body and keeping the arm and belt to create more interest and mystery but felt this didn’t work because it looked odd and the shadow on the clothing made the photo more interesting.

Photoshop gave me the flexibility to experiment with editing the photo, cropping it using the magnetic lasso tool or un doing it if I felt it didn’t work as I had planned.


From research I had come across a movie poster with a plain background and I experimented with doing that also. I put a efrf3ct on my text through the edit layer style Photoshop allowed me to experiment with, to make it look fuzzy and light around the edges. I experimented with names for my credit and found them too spaced out.

I looked closely at other film credits and found it a good help to experiement with the font and the lenfth of the letters to make it look more. Photoshop allowed me to experiement with different fonts for this.

How did you use new media technolgies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?


With my movie magazine, Photoshop allowed me to be creative with all I had planned to do, allowing me to experiment with ideas to make it look interesting with the photograph as well.

With my film title I was able to experiment with the font and the stroke on this through the edit layer style


With experimenting with plugs and puffs, I found it was hard to make it visible against the dark lighting of my photos hair. So with the help of using the edit layer style and using the stroke tool I was able to make a bold edge around my plugs to make them stand out.

The use of colour also helps my plug to stand out and makes my magazine more interest to observe


Creating my masthead around the tough lighting of my photo was difficult but Photoshop helped with the edit layer style of the stroke tool where I was able to make it thicker and bolder. The font also adds interest being different, and the colours all compliment one another making right target audience who enjoy horror movies or social drama movies be drawn to the magazine.

Adobe premiere was flexible with my choices of how I wanted my film to be portrayed. I wa sbale to edit easily using the scissor tool and undo that if need be.

How did you use new media technolgies in the construction and researtch, planning and evaluation stages?

How did you use new media technolgies in the construction and researtch, planning and evaluation stages?

From the scissor tool I was able to cut my scenes and shots short to make them quick and snappy and flow in to one another

With having the shots stored for editing I was also able to split the same shot I had shot from different angles, and split them between other scenes to make them go from one to the other.


Adobe premiere also allowed me to put in quotes whenever I wanted them and to edit those if need be. I could also put a effect on them to make them fade out.


With the easy lightweight use of the camera and tripod I was able to film awkward shots for example a high angle shot in a cubicle where it is confined.


I was able to experiment with shots in the mirror to make my film more effective, and the camera allowed me to film the most important parts, for example showing the belt within the same shot.


Adobe premiere allowed me to experimented with the length of my music and to cut it and edit it if need be. I was able to cut out the parts I didn’t want, and move the new part to where this part used to be as well using the scissor tool. With the yellow bar I was able to adjust the sound making it quieter or louder.

Adobe also allowed me to use a voice over and with this I was able to edit this to connect to a over the shoulder shot of the person speaking to make it effective.


Education

Media powerpoint evaluation Jodie-Mae Howard