Week 1

WEEK ONE - (PRE-PRODUCTION: MOCK-UPS & STORYBOARDING)How are you using media technology in the planning and research?

My knowledge on media technology is being used for research on film teaser trailers. To begin with, I had used my knowledge of filming to record audience’s response in order to gain a better understanding on what is expected from a teaser trailer according to the public.

Using a digital camera helped me to take photos of different areas in order to give us ideas and plan the location before shooting. Here are the many places I took photos of with my digital camera:

I had also used video websites such as YouTube.

 

Using websites like YouTube allowed me to watch other
teaser trailers and to learn about how they are filmed, edited and compare different videos with each other so that I could sum up which ones I wanted my group’s teaser trailer to look like or have similar mise-en-scene, camera shots, effects, sound and font style etc. It gave us ideas on what works and what doesn’t. It also gave us an overall idea of what the audience expect from a teaser trailer. Planning this is important as it stops you from making any bad decisions when filming and editing. It also makes your teaser trailer appear more professional when getting ideas and techniques from real production companies.  Out of the many comedy film trailers I have watched, these ones in particular have stood out to me because of their hilarious humour, great entertainment and eye catching effects and other media techniques. Yet they don’t give away the storyline.

Hall Pass:

In this trailer, I liked the way the representation of men was taken and exaggerated. This is a spoof of both gender representations and challenges the representations by changing the outcome towards the end of the trailer. The pace of the trailer begins slow and gentle whilst it begins to gradually get faster towards the end which is the kind of approach we wanted to take on.

The Hangover Part 2:

Again, another spoof of a bachelors's party. The common stereotype is taken and exaggerated which is why the film is so successfully humorous.

This trailer is a great example of the type of target audience we are trying to attract and the kind of style we are going for. This spoof takes the stereotypical views of teenagers and overexaggerates it, which is very much similar to what our group is aiming to do. The music, speed and caption designs inspire us to create something similar but the female version. Like this trailer, we too wanted to show what it's like to live in London as a youth but what we are doing differently is not showing one perspective, but two.

I also used other media technology such as images so that I can share with my group and audiences I have interviewed what images I have viewed so that they can see where I am coming from. It’s also important that I can visualise different examples of the distributors marketing and judge from what I feel works. Here are some of the many posters I have seen:

This Anuvahood poster is bright, stylish and looks like something from a cartoon. This shows the childish humour that is behind it. The maise-en-scene exaggerates and brings out the youth look. Behind the two guys wearing hoodies and bling are blocks and council flat buildings which give the audience an idea to the setting.

Judging by the both posters, the reactions of both films instantly give that humours edge to it. Comedy posters tend to do this a lot. In our group we had ideas to do this also. But our main inspiration was from the this poster: 'It's A Boy Girl Thing'.

In this poster I liked the oppositions of the characters, the colour differences, their expressions and the background being white. This draws all the attention to the main characters sitting on one bench. A simple poster yet a lot can be understood from it.

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


My media product will use similar techniques as others on the market by using a similar theme or font style so that the niche audience can sense the humour. However, it will be developed by creating an original piece and a storyline which hasn’t been thought of before. Having a unique product can be challenging and could be a great way to attract the audience. It is unquestionable that comedy spoofs are very often created, however, most of which are rated a PG and are targeted at everyone. This can sometimes draw young adults attention and instead repel them from watching the movie. Yet our goal is to be targeting young adults, that way audiences from 15+ are able to watch (including all teenagers).

Representation of Teenagers:


The media have already built a strong ideology on 21^st century teenagers in which they enforce onto the public.

Known to the police, young and reckless.

Skins representation as young, reckless and sexual.

^ A teenager during the London Riots 2011

< A knife crime poster targetting teenagers.

The 'Chav' Phenomenon

During the last century, developments in the terminology used to refer to the working class have become increasingly negative and unconstructive, meaning that social class has become distinguished by taste, and more importantly, a perceived lack of taste (Adams and Raisborough, 2008: 1173). While social anxieties regarding working-class mothers and teenage pregnancy 'have always been a target of social stigma', a more focused class hatred can be seen with 'the fetishisation of the chav mum within popular culture [which] marks a new outpouring of sexist class disgust' (Tyler, 2008: 26). The working classes of the twentieth century, once associated with diligence and hard work, are often forgotten and we are reminded of pessimistic concepts of the 'underclass', and now more recently, the prolific 'chav' character.
Our target is to take this ideology and create a humorous mockery out of it to the point where the ideology seems pathetic and over exaggerated. This technique will hopefully be an eye opener for those who label the youth as two different perspectives are combined into one.

Peckham Finishing School for Girls:

 

This program that was viewed on BBC Three is about four privileged young ladies who swap the leafy lanes of the Home Counties for the streets of south London to experience for themselves how life is lived on the other side of the tracks. This series was a huge inspiration and is where we had taken some great ideas and developed it into our own. We challenged this documentary by putting in actors of youth ages to challenge the stereotypical views of a teenager and show two contrasts in order to show viewers both sides of the story.



Ali G (born Alistair Leslie Graham) is a satirical fictional character invented and performed by English comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. Originally appearing on Channel 4's Eleven O'Clock show, Ali G is the title character of Channel 4's Da Ali G Show, original episodes of which aired in 2000 and on HBO in 2003–2004, and is the title character of the film Ali G Indahouse.



Sacha Baron Cohen:

Ali G:

Ali G took the stereotypical view of youths towards the early naughties and exaggerated it creating a humouress effect. We decided we wanted to mimick youths in a similar way so we analysed some of his sketches via YouTube.