Feedback of Final Cut

People said that our music was one if the best things in our was the soundtrack, however the volume was so loud that at times it dominated the voice-over. It was advised that we turn the soundtrack down and turn up the voice-over. However people thought that the voice-over needed to be longer in places, like after the first line. Another problem observed was that there were too few shots in general in our sequence. Having looked at these We agree with the sound criticisms, we know the soundtrack and the voice-over drowned each other out, especially at the first line. It also was an unnaturally quick journey from the hallway to the classroom.

Character Comparison

These two character are ones that we think resemble our main character. The one on the left is from "10 Things I Hate About You" and the one on the right is from "Drillbit Taylor". The first is "Michael Eckman", and the second is "Wade". Wade is a nervous, skinny, pressured and fairly stereotypical nerd, who is bullied, pressured by his father, unsure of himself, wears glasses and has a crush on a fellow student. Michael Eckman, is a more "nerdy" character, who is obsessed with technology, as well as being the former head of a technology society at his school. We took most of the character "Wade" and combined it with the "extra nerdiness" of Michael. We took the romantic theme from both, as "10 Things I Hate About You" is a romantic comedy. We took the description from "Wade", with the costume from "Michael". With all these things we made "Tom".

Review of Filming

We got enough footage to make a sequence , but we had to adjust several shots. We chose not o have a conversation between Tom and his friend, instead we just filmed them saying hello to each other. We did this because we found it hard to film a long scene like that due to the large amount of people walking down the hall and, mainly we found it too time consuming. We also added in Tom dropping his books as we thought it would add to the characterization. We did not shoot the toilet scene as we felt we had enough footage and there was not the right amount of time to film it in. We added in the bit where Tom looks at the couple, as, since it as teenage romantic comedy we thought that it needed a romance moment. It took us longer to film than expected, as we simply we not organized enough when filming. however we did get enough footage to get a complete opening sequence.

Review of First Draft

The majority of the class said that our rough cut did not have a big problem with it, but that the absence of the titles and the voice-over was noticeable and that it needed to be put in for the sequence to be "great" instead of "ok". Thus this is what we will focus our efforts on, putting on the soundtrack. Once they are both on we will adjust anything we think needs it.

Voice Over

Shot 1: ah school, drag, such a drag. Frigging Biology first, what a crappy lesson. Forgot homework again, and oh look, an airplane, first one I've seen today. A cage hurtling through the air with everyone else's thoughts. Haha, Frakie Boyle makes me laugh. But no, Planes are pretty safe, like your more likely to die from like a meteor than a plane...Song stuck in my head, legend tune, but don't tell anyone "I will try......to fix you!"
Shot 2: "And Lights will gui-id you home...@ oh, wait stop! got to cross the road here. Thank you Lord, needed to think there. Left, Right, cross, ah bliss, This feels like a good day. Right, one more lol thought before class, I'm gunna need something funny to get me through this lesson, Jack Dee, lej, "Week by week, build up your collection of 17th century ships!" awesome stuff there Jack, I am loving the comedy.
Shot 3: First friggin corridor of school, ah man, quick hide, Mr. Duncan knows I still haven't done my English essay, get it done! It's boring, but you have to do it eventually. ok, hes gone, its ok, right on with the day.
Shot 4: ok, so what to do for the next ten minutes, could read, surf the net, Ah hey, its Terry!
Shot 5(aloud until stated)
Tom: oi, Terry
Terry: you alright Tom?
Tom: what's up man, what you been up to?
Terry: not much, weeing myself about my psychology test next, but apart from that normal...
Tom: you'll be fine, your the best in the class, You spent last night revising?
Terry: not enough, Gears of War was just more fun.
Tom: it is, but you'll never beat my record.
Terry: I know, it's just to hard, how did you do that man?
Tom: Boredom, I'm just that cool that I spend all Saturday night on my xbox.
Terry: alright, time to go take that test, see you in a little bit.
Tom:Good Luck
(not aloud): That kid has to study more, he, and to be fair myself as well are like, ruled or something by our video games.
Shot 6: What time is it, still not lesson time, ah what to do. ah, cool air, and the fountain, it is a nice one. crap, I need to pee now. Watched "The Producers" too many times...
shot 7: don't run, you'll look stupid, right quick pace though. Here we are. free urinal, nice, oh wait, no, someone else standing next to it, ah he's done. now on with the piss. That is a good piss, getting it out that is, not that I get a feeling of ectasy from peeing. Wash, dry, and out to Biology
Shot 8: "...and ignig-----------ht your bones, and I will try to..." ow!! what the fudge!?

Shot List

Shot 1 - Tom is walking down the street, on his way to school.This should an extreme long shot showing the school, his entire body and the houses around him.
shot 2 - This should be the title of the movie (Teenaging) with him still in the shot, but moving out of view of the camera.
shot 3 - This shot is of Tom's feet as he walks down the school corridor. This should be a long shot, with evidence that it is in the corridor. The shot camera pans up to see the character's face at the same distance.
shot 4 - The camera cuts to an extreme long shot of the whole corridor, with Tom talking to his friend.
shot 5 - We see the two friends talking to each other using the 180 degree rule from behind a character's shoulder, clearly seeing the head and shoulders of each character.
shot 6 - We see Tom walking down the hallway checking the time on his phone. we see the phone, half his arm and hand, and the hallway.
shot 7 - Tom goes into the toilet, we see from his point of view him standing at a urinal, whilst listening to his thoughts.
shot 8 - We see an object thrown at Tom's his head, and his reaction.

Settings used
Shot 1- Sedley Taylor Road
Shot 2- Sedley Taylor Road
shot 3- Long Road corridor, with lockers preferably
Shot 4- Long Road Corridor
Shot 5- long Road Corridor, next to a wall or locker
Shot 6- End of Corridor
Shot 7- Long Road Male Toilet
Shot 8- Exit of Long Road Male Toilet

Mood Board

Initial Ideas

the film is almost all shot in the first person, with a college student (filmed at Long Road) who walks around the school on a normal day and we see everything that happens to him through his eyes. We hear his thoughts as he goes about his daily routine, just having got in to college, he goes to the toilet, talks to his friend etc...He goes through a normal life and we hear his thoughts, which is where the comedy will come from. We will not show the romance element of the film in this part, as we do not have a girl in our group, we will instead focus on charater development by letting the audience hear his typically teenage thoughts.

Film Opening Homework

Media Studies Homework
Harry Potter Five
Sound- The opening soundtrack sets the scene, mysterious and dark. The storm noise combined with the long shot of storm clouds shows the pathetic fallacy used. When Harry and Dudley run away from the park they are panting loudly which for me makes them look panicked. The panting noises from Harry and Dudley emphasises that they are running quickly because of danger. The soundtrack during the attack shows how dangerous the dementors are. It has a weather report in the background saying it will be hot and sunny, which is contradicted when the storm clouds appear.
Camera- The camera moves slowly through a misty and dimly light titles, only two titles, into sunlight which establishes a shot of Little Winging. Jolty camera when Harry and Dudley are running, which I think shows the purpose of them running. An Extreme long shot of the storm clouds shows the storm caused by the dementors.
Mise-En-Scene- empty park makes it look depressing, Dudley’s clothes are stereotypically worn by unkind teens. Newspapers blowing are used to show danger and I think they are used to show danger in the scene, not in reality. Dimly light path shows danger as the dementors wear black clothes. The dry grass makes it look as if the area is poor.
Editing- Storm clouds show danger as soon as Harry raises his wand, when it is the dementors that makes the storm clouds appear. The dementors action towards Harry and mainly Dudley show the horror genre aspects of the movie. Swift camera movements to show divide between Harry and Dudley.
Graphics and special effects- starts with a very dark and misty image of the Warner Brothers symbol, the darkness tells us that there are horror aspects of this films genre. Dementors are shown to glide mysteriously and that makes them scary and hold power they should not have, evil power.
Genre- The two titles in the sky show the magical elements, dementors are magical creatures and Harry casts a spell which all show the magic part of the genre. The dementors show part of the story as being on the villain’s side as they suck out people’s souls which is evil. The spinning merry-go-round and the start whilst is spinning mainly because at the time it was recently used, but it also seems to be magic as it is spinning for a long time. The length of time can also be interpreted as mystery to the story.
Narrative- The Black sky shows bad things happening with magic as it is caused by the arrival of the dementors. It is in the dark that the dementors come which is used to foreshadow a bad thing happening in the story, not reality. The confrontation between Harry and Dudley tells the viewers about the tense relationship they have. The dementors attacking Harry foreshadows how the dementors will join voldemort later in the story. Harry’s loneliness shows how he does not like Little Winging due to a lack of friends and he is on his own in the park which shows how he is in danger, none in reality. (the part about the fictional Harry Potter also applies to characters)
Characters- The confrontation shows both character’s personalities, however small parts, both character’s costumes can be linked to stereotypes. The link between dementors and sucking souls shows their characteristics, but that was known already at that stage about the fictional make-believe characters. Harry’s scare is a part of his personality and it is very visible when Harry looks up at the storm clouds caused by the dementors, the fictional characters, at this point it can be seen clearly.

Conventions of a teenage romantic comedy

We would expect to see things a teenager would do normally and relate to. Some of it ought to be set in a school or have the protagonist studying. He or she would also dress like a normal teenager (jeans are a necessity) and have some fashion sense, it does not matter which fashion group he is a member of. In Juno the protagonist has to deal with teenager problems, so our character should be exposed to a certain teenage problem. They would carry modern accessories and relax in the current teenage way. They would have one or two things not normally connected to teenagers in their personality.

Teenage Stereotypes

• The Average Joe

• The Geek

• The Jock

• The Prep

• The Good Looking Girl / The Girl Next Door

• The Musician

• The Drug User
  

• The Activist

• The Skater Boy

Teenage Romantic Comedy Ideas

Some examples of of teenage and romantic comedies are

• Ten Things I Hate About You
• Angus Thong And Perfect Snogging
  
• Juno
  
• Clueless
• Four Weddings And A Funeral
• Notting Hill
  
• Love Actually
• Serendipety