Link to group blog.

http://ascvhsmediadecs.blogspot.com/ This is the link to our group blog.

(Resit january 2012) Comparing our opening to our preliminary task (Q7)

Video 2 is the retake, bonus video.

Video 1


Video 2

(RESIT JANUARY 2012) How did we attract the audience to our film? (Q5)

Red lettering is used to show which work has been modified or added for the resit of January 2012.

A good marketing skill for attracting a particular target audience is the use of music and how an opening, or, equally as important, a trailer uses music to connote to the audience particular genres. ‘Superbad’(2007) was a extremely successful comedy and the music in the opening captures the audiences’ attention and creates a brilliant fun, excited atmosphere; which is vital for the setup of a film. Here is the ‘Superbad’ intro to help illustrate my point.

The tune is very fun and without assistance of the visuals can confirm to the audience that firstly this film is upbeat and secondly that it is not heavy going and will promise that the film will require little to no thinking, following one of the uses of gratification theories which suggests audience watch films to be just entertained. The lyrics also help confirm the following, this can be considered as enigma coded information as audiences usually won’t pay attention to these lyrics but none the less they will still hear, process and configure them.

‘Yeah, hey, hey
Oh, yeah

I'd been having my
Eyes on you for awhile
Girl, it's something about your act
And I sure do like your style

Maybe it's the way
That you carry yourself
Maybe it's the way
That you ride around

You move with the feeling
And you sure know how
Girl, I'm out to get your love
And I'm too hot to stop now

Yeah, yeah, yeah......

I don't mind if I'm considered uncool
Cause I believe to each his own
I don't play that rule

When you find the special one
That really drives you wild
You owe it to yourself to try
Cause soon they might be gone

Getting next to you
Is what I want to do
Girl, I wanna get it somehow
Cause I'm too hot to stop now

Yeah, hey, hey, yeah

Getting next to you
Is what I want to do
Getting next to you
Is what I want to do

Getting next to you
Is what I want to do
Getting next to you
Is what I want to do

Yeah, hey, hey, yeah’

It tells the audience of the narrative for the film, this has to advantages. Number one it can tell the viewer that the plot isn’t to serious, once again supporting the theory for uses of gratifications. Secondly it leaves the narrative open, as a result capturing their attention.

Now our film uses some traits from the audio of ‘Superbad’. Firstly the song was upbeat and was designed by a musician that is relatively highly recognised within the local community for his contributions for the band ‘Forgetting the fallen’. The advantages of having an establish musician create our soundtrack  was that he has an understanding better than our own of how audiences’ will react to songs and how to create good quality music which fitted our requirements which are listed below.

Requirements – Firstly the song must fit the length of our opening, which will build up and end perfectly in time for our final shot.

-Secondly the film must be fun and upbeat to insure we capture the audiences’ attention and connote that the film is a comedy.

- Thirdly, the song must not conflict with any copyrighted music; a result of this would be withdrawal of the created song.

After listening to the song and placing it in time with the video I feel we have insured that the song fits perfectly with the opening, it has connoted not just the genre but that the film is easy going and by not conflicting with copyright laws it can be used as a fun upbeat piece of music which our target audience will love.

(RESIT JANUARY 2012) Similarities between our film and that of other comedy films

Our comedy film is based around geeks trying to get with a girl. There is a long history of other comedy films of geeks trying to get with girls such as ‘Superbad’ (2007) and ‘American Pie’ (1999). The only difference is our geeks are all after the same girl instead of several girls and also our girl turns out to be as geeky as all three combined. In the two other films they go for the popular girls, not the geek, however, things change for ‘American Pie 2’ (2001) and ‘American Pie 3’ (2003) as the main character ‘Jim’ falls in love with the music geek. This is closely linked to our film. However, in our film the girl turns out to be geeky and not that the boys fall in love with the geeks.

The idea of our film is closely linked to the song ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ released in 2000, sung by the band ‘Wheatus’. The song was created for the film ‘Loser’ (2000) what was about a geek who loved the popular girl and eventually won her heart. IMDB has shortly described it as ‘A college student, branded a loser by his roommates and booted from the dorm, falls in love with a coed who has eyes for their professor.’ And similar to our movie the popular girl turns out to be secretly nerdy herself.

Even BBC’s film reviewer Anwar Brett can confirm the narrative of our films is nearly identical.

‘ If school years are the best of your life, how come so many movies about them dwell upon the miserable times to be had there? From Tom Brown's gloomy schooldays, to what seems like every American high school teen comedy/drama/horror tale, school seems the kind of thing you would like to put behind you as soon as humanly possible.’

‘Much like this film, in a way, which is so slight that a sudden gust of wind might pick it up and carry it where no other critic could do it harm. Jason Biggs, so appealing in "American Pie" is pretty charmless here, as much because his role is so one dimensional as for any real fault on his part. He plays Paul, the small town nice guy who is trying to get on at college but finds himself unable to fit in with his cooler, wealthier peers.’ Following the conventions of the geeky lover boy we have created all three geeks to follow suit of Paul in the way he cannot fit in with his cooler piers.

‘Circumstance throws him together with hip and feisty fellow student Dora Diamond (Suvari), and as he instantly falls in love with her, he also realises he has no chance of winning over someone so unattainable.’ Like our girl Dora seems unattainable and all three of our geeks, like Paul, love her from first sight. 

 The lyrics from the movies song shows the narrative of a boy liking a popular girl….

Her name is Noelle
I have a dream about her
she rings my bell
I got gym class in half an hour

Oh how she rocks
In Keds and tube socks
But she doesn't know who I am
And she doesn't give a damn about me

These lyrics tell us the boy is in collage (like our geeks) and that he like the same girl that doesn’t notice him (like our geeks).

Cause I'm just a teenage dirtbag baby
Yeah I'm just a teenage dirtbag baby
Listen to Iron Maiden baby... with me
Ooohoooooo

These lines also show that he’s a ‘metal head’ shown by him liking ‘Iron Maiden’ - a heavy metal band. These ‘metal heads’ would be classed as the outcast at colleges and this can relate to our geeks being outcasts also.

Man I feel like mold
It's prom night and I am lonely.
Lo and behold
she's walking over to me.

This must be fake
My lip starts to shake
How does she know who I am?
And why does she give a damn about me?


I've got two tickets to Iron Maiden baby
Come with me Friday - don't say maybe.
I'm just a teenage dirtbag baby
like you
Ooohoo Hoo Hooooooo

The pink section is what the popular girl sings to the boy. It turns out she is also an outcast ‘metal head’ putting on a disguise similar to the popular girl in our film. And just like our film, she also has a confession and admits she is an outcast.  

If there weren’t copyright issues I feel this song would have gone perfectly with our film opening; feeding the audience a secretive enigma code. However, it could also close the narrative of the film with the girls section in the song. To prevent this we could possibly remove the girls section of the song until the end credits of the film.

We adopted an idea from ‘Step Brothers’ (2008) for our film opening. During the Step Brothers opening there is no music until you see the timer start on the microwave starting a non-diegetic rocky soundtrack. We’re doing the exact same thing except our non-diegetic music starts when Stacey’s turns off her alarm clock. Also, during the dialogue sections during the opening the music dims right down so the audience can hear what’s being said.  We’ve adopted this idea for our one dialogue line throughout the opening so the audience can hear what’s being said.

Though ‘Loser’ scored only a moderate 5 out of 10 stars it has a strong narrative foundation which our group will adapt on making it ruder and aimed for a more mature audience; the minimum age being 15 rather than 12. You could consider our film to be the in-between of ‘Superbad’ inappropriate humour and ‘Losers’ love plot.

(RESIT JANUARY 2012) 31/01/2011 Student Films

To help me gain a better understanding of the requirements needed for this exam and to see an effective student opening, I watched three student openings from the previous year and evaluated their strengths and weaknesses in an analysed format. By acknowledging these elements, I hope to use them in order to create the best opening possible.

Film 1

Film 1) the first camera shot in this opening is a pan; used to establish a location for the audience. The issue with this shot is that it wobbles; however, the error is not too a level of which could corrupt the atmosphere first established.  Rather than using this pan the group could have used an establishing shot to help present their location quicker. The next shot, with the presumed antagonist sitting behind a candle is a low angled shot which empowers the villain. Yet, this idea of power is challenged further on in the piece as the antagonist is seen in a high angled shot making her seem venerable. In the high angled shot the camera lowers, yet the movement to this position is once again wobbly making it hard to maintain a good level of audience concentration. There are also several over the shoulder shots which is a good way for the audience to see what the antagonist is doing. There is a verity of long, mid and close up shots which shows the production company has a range of skills above the angled shots and the over the shoulder shots.

The backing music fits nicely with the horror genre and the group have incorporated some sound effects which helps heighten the feel of the piece. The scratch in-between shots seems amateur, I question if they really had to be their? The group may have used the Fooley effect with certain parts to help emphasise certain key moments such as the burning of the picture or the dragging of the body among leaves. The dialogue helped set up the narrative and plot of the piece. Yet, I feel for an opening it may have gave away to much information. Another issue with the dialogue was that you could hear dialectal environment sounds within the background, a solution to this could have been to record the sound separately in a quiet environment rather than on site of production.

Mise is a key factor to this piece and it feeds the audience tons of enigma coded messages which gives them something to unpick as the film journeys on; similar to films such as ‘The Sixth Sense’(1999) or ‘Shutter Island’(2010). The red candle gives an idea of the antagonist personality. The red connotes death, blood and murder and the way the crew have asked the actor to stare into the flame suggests the antagonist is insane. A significant prop is the collection of images of the male, this allows the audience to become aware of the stories plot and highlights that the antagonist is jealous of her loves new love. By burning the picture the candle and image props become one showing that the antagonist wishes to kill either her love of her loves new love. This leads up nicely to the blood covering her white shirt; this juxtaposition costume works well as the white connotes purity and the blood connotes death, allowing the audience to choose whether or not they feel for the antagonist’s broken heart.

The editing of the piece is were the opening falls apart. I already criticised the piece for giving away to much narrative for an opening but this coinciding with all the fade to blacks (a trailer convention) makes the clip feel as if it is a trailer. There is really only one question left to be asked after this opening and that is did the antagonist kill the male or female? Apart from this we know why she did it and who did it covering up the majority of the mystery and making the opening seem more like a short movie.

I think the ‘Peephole productions’ logo is brilliant and it fits very nicely with the horror genre. On a negative note the second production introduced ‘Valley Entertainment’ does not have a logo and is only on the screen for two seconds. A real institution would be offended if their advertisement and praise of accomplishment was a messily two second title. The names seemed to appear in a suited style for their film as did the title. The juxtaposition of red and white was also shown throughout the title sequence as names appeared in white and the title red. Once again making you question the only character we meet in the opening and allowing the audience to feel emotions for her with un intentional promotions from the production crew.

Film 2



 Film 2) the majority of the opening is devised from long shots which are either stationary or panning, nearly all are following the white coated girl. These shots all block the girl in the centre of the frame and leave’s a large amount of open space around her connoting she is venerable to attack. This idea is further connoted by the over the shoulder shot of the presumed stalker and clever editing. All these shots are steady and mixed with the accessional close up and mid shots it shows a excellent diverse stretch of camera skill.

The sound effects fit the horror genre nicely and build up tension to create an atmosphere which ultimately established a mood for the rest of the film; this is partly achieved by following the horror convention of high pitch jingles as part of the non diegetic background music.  I find the voice over at the start of the clip very interesting and question it to try and solve it riddles. Lines, such as ‘Please, please don’t.’ are repeated numerous time and seem to be a play back response which makes me believe that the victim is being recorded and then re listened too. This group has used the scratch sound effect wonderfully, appearing when the stalker is seen in the jump cuts. This helps add a creepy factor to this unidentified character.

The main factors of mise-en-scene are used to make the opening more dramatic; lighting, blocking and costumes. The exterior natural lighting throughout the piece slowly gets darker and this added with the jump cuts of the stalker makes the situation the audience are viewing more alarming. The victim being unaware of the stalker but the audience constantly seeing him is dramatic irony and the tension of this perk is greatly increased when the streets become darker and the stalker is no longer visible. The blocking of the piece is done well making the victim always centre of attention and placing her in the frame where she seems alone and venerable. By having the stalker always blocked behind her gives of the impression that the victim is unaware of her pursuer and the shot of him in the home so close to the victim is daunting. This is done by showing within each jump cut and sighting of the stalker the gap between predator and prey narrowing. The costumes of prey and predator are binary opposites and one connotes innocence as the other does evil, this works well and above this the colours add a scare factor as the dark stalker blends into the night well but the white prey stands out.

                The jump cuts throughout the piece are done beautifully and by seeing the victim alone and being persuade by her stalker within these moments really heightens the sense that she is oblivious of being followed. Also the fast pace editing at the end connotes confusion which fits nicely with narrative which is left fractured and confused. The narrative remains open by having the victim speaking at the start; if the dialogue wasn’t there I would have presumed she died, making the opening a short movie. As it goes they did not and by having the jump cuts and change of natural lighting changing moments of time it makes the narrative fractured; this however makes the film a thriller (as fractured narratives is a thriller convention) and not a horror which defeats the group’s research of potential audience, ultimately making the institution waste time and money targeting the wrong audience.

I think the second and third institution logos are brilliant and look very professional. The first one of the two, ‘Fugitive productions’ fits the horror genre brilliantly and the second, though not suiting the genre looks very professional and believable. This is why it’s a shame that the ‘CVHS productions presents’ logo is boring and looks extremely amateur.  Like the last student film I analysed I think the production logos should have remained on screen longer so not to offend any institutions. The names also felt rush and the title was a disappointment as it was only on screen for two seconds and seemed to have no though process behind it apart from the colour, which was red to connote death. Ultimately the camera, editing and sound was good for this production but it seemed more of a thriller rather than a horror. The titles did not fit the genre and the narrative confused it.

Film 3

Film 3) the group lacks a diverse range of camera shots. I could only count several mid and long shots all from different points of view which either shows the group has only basic understanding of camera angels or they were to laser to plot an opening which could hit top grade boundaries.

The non diegetic music for the opening was also disappointing. The music they used defeated all purposes of music chosen for horror genres. Rather than establishing a tense atmosphere it made the piece feel like a drama. The only piece of sound I could praise was the added effect of when the man enters the room. You hear smashed glass which reveals to the audience that something tragic has happened in that room.

Mise-en-scene for this piece isn’t much better than the camera or sound production. The red tie the male wears connoted danger and blood, possibly he is the killer? Or is he the next victim? These questions keep the audiences’ attention. The bat is also a useful prop suggesting the man is heading into danger and about to confront the threat. These are good however the lighting and location for this piece is not well planned out. It seems to me as if the group used a friend’s house which was available and filmed when was easiest rather than scouting for locations and planning a filming schedule which could be in the natural low key lighting of night time making the piece much scarier. I appreciate the equipment used may not have been ideal for night time filming (such as the low quality of cameras) however, under the street lights and with the front door open allowing the house light to brighten the street I see no issues with the idea. Regarding locations I would suggest using a creepier house which was more rural and open, this would make it easier to believe that the man was alone is checking the victims as no one else would be around to help him.

The editing which led the first three shots together was very quick. To quick to create an atmosphere needed for a horror but after this error the editing maintained a good level of continuity. The production logo for ‘CVHS MEDIA PRODUCTION’ was extremely amateur and showed no skill of editing. The ‘Bad apple’ productions logo also distracted the viewer from the genre making the distance between the desired horror genre and the opening greater. The name titles were not conventional for a horror film; seeming to happy and curved and the film title also showed hardly any skill or thought process apart from the colour which could connote blood or death. The narrative of the piece remains open which is critical for a good film opening.

(RESIT JANUARY 2012) How to insure we do not have a bad comedy opening?

To help protect our film from becoming bad I have dug deep into comedy films that are considered awful and have studied why these films are so.

According to IMDB (Internet Movie Database) the below are the worse comedy films of all time.

Bottom Rated "Comedy" Titles

Rank	Rating	Title	Votes
1.	1.2	Yyyreek!!! Kosmiczna nominacja (2002)	721
2.	1.3	Gulczas, a jak myslisz... (2001)	741
3.	1.3	Venni vidi e m'arrapaoh (1984)	272
4.	1.3	Box Office 3D (2011)	141
5.	1.4	Xuxa Popstar (2000)	576
6.	1.4	Szuperbojz (2009)	308
7.	1.4	Tangy Guacamole (2003)	312
8.	1.4	Hollywood High Part II (1981)	206
9.	1.4	Flophouse (2002)	173
10.	1.4	Dream Well (2009)	3,196

The most hated film, gathering a lazy 1.2stars is called ‘Yyyreek!!! Kosmiczna nominacja’ (2002) and it is a Polish film.  After reading some reviews I have discovered the director is a Polish veteran of comedy films; so why is it so bad? My research has led me to try and find clips of the film so I can discover from firsthand experience the answer.

Yet finding any clip seemed impossible. From what the reviews suggest it was a rushed film with a low budget. Yet I still feel this is not an acceptable reason why it is a bad movie, other comedy films with low budgets have become successes.

(RESIT JANUARY 2012) Target audience appearance moodboard

Mood Board of Auidence

Though the mood board only covers a very tiny percentage of our target audience it highlights specific viewers which would be more interested than the average target audience member.

Each character lists within the mood board are both stereotypical and true to real people within society. Each group has an extra interest in a film compared to the normal audience we are targeting and here are the reasons why…

The Geeks- In media geeks are stereotypically portrayed as losers. They have few friends but each friendship is committed and healthy. This is untrue to life; geeks from my own experience can have tons of friends and in fact can be popular.

Our geek, Stuart, must be portrayed stereotypically to insure we capture the desired audience’s attention as well insuring we have a funny comedy. Using Stuart in this stereotypical way we interest a grater mass audience rather than a niece, ‘geek’ one.

The Emo kids- Emo is the terminology that has been defined as ‘they sometimes hate others but mostly themselves as some are depressed. They usually wear black’ it is a growing culture and people become emo so they can express themselves without being questioned or ridiculed. Character Tom is not an emo yet he stands for the same morals and principles they do allowing us to capture this growing audience.

XBOX KID- Late studies have reported ‘Up to 90 percent of American youth play video games and as many as 15 percent of them (more than 5 million kids) may be addicted, according to data cited in a report by the American Medical Association's Council on Science and Public Health. ‘Though the change in culture is both worrying and terrible it can be easily used to film industries advantage.

Our character Bob can relate to the massive 15percent who are addicted to video games. This huge audience will love our character and come to watch the film just for him. Finding a weakness in society we have established a gigantic easily attracted audience to our film.

The happy guys- Our film is a comedy and conventions of comedy usually include an easily enjoyable happy film. The genre has brought the happy audience to us and with the use of an un-serious storyline we can nearly promise they’ll enjoy the film.

My looks are everything girls- This sounds comical but the increase in concern for appearance within society is worrying. Many illnesses have derived from this concern including eating disorders. That is why so many females will relate to Stacey, for she is also concerned about her appearance (connoted in seconds by the clip of Stacey stuffing her bra.)

We can perhaps help young females with our film to realise appearance isn’t everything. Stacey in the storyline leaves her ‘glamorous’ life and comes out her shell to admit she is a geek and though less popular she is extremely happy with her true self. Though this serious plot is hidden within a comedy narrative I am confident this enigma coded information will reach our viewers making a potential gigantic female audience.

The down to earth guys- This is the rare audience that is similar to the happy kid. They will watch the film just because the conventions of comedy are easy going and promises and easy, enjoyable film.