Evaluation Interview

Again, I had difficulty uploading the video of our interview with Mr Earl about Science Boys so I have included a link to vimeo were you can watch it. The interview process was actually really helpful in getting all our ideas out and discussing them properly. Also, the questions we were asked helped guide us into how we wanted to construct our class presentation about making Science Boys. At first doing the interview was a bit daunting and felt unnatural, but hopefully by then end you can see we actually enjoyed it!
http://vimeo.com/40213638?utm_source=internal&utm_medium=email&utm_content=cliptranscoded&utm_campaign=adminclip
  

Evaluation Presentation to the Class

As I have been unable to upload the video onto my blog, I have uploaded it onto Vimeo so you can watch it. Here is the link:
http://vimeo.com/40147779?utm_source=internal&utm_medium=email&utm_content=cliptranscoded&utm_campaign=adminclip

The PowerPoint presentation is already on the blog to look at too! We wanted to be as detailed as possible in why we chose to do all the things we did in our project. The presentation to the class was a bit nerve-racking as we were showing all our work to people and it's always scary how people will respond to it. However, hopefully our presentation was interesting to watch but also informative and justifies why we did what we did in our project and what we are proud of. Our presentation includes audiences, institution's, codes & conventions and how we made Science Boys which should break-down in chronological order where our ideas came from. 

What have you learnt from doing the project?

I feel that when me and Kirsty began our final project Science Boys we didn't know much about what it took to make a film. From our project we learnt the importance of careful planning and we did this the hard way through having to re-shoot our film after a poorly planned shoot. Our first shoot meant we didn't have a working tri-pod (which we realised is vital in creating a professional project) and also we didn't have a clear plan about the shots we wanted. So, when we came to re-shooting our project, we had a clear idea of what we wanted and kept it planned out and checked off the shots we wanted when we got them. Therefore one of the biggest things we learnt was about careful planning. We also learnt that you have to know the genre of film your working on really well and understand its conventions. This helped us in creating a film which we think looks professional and like a real movie. 


We also learnt that your project can look so much better if you having cooperate actors who follow instructions well. We were lucky that our actors were willing to give up more of their own time to re-shoot but also that they followed what me and Kirsty said so we could get good results. As our film is a comedy, it was important that our actors portrayed this and we quickly learnt that to make our film look and sound more professional, we wouldn't want our actors talking as the sound wouldn't be of a high enough quality due to our camera. 


We also learnt about how to use the editing software PremierPro. Initially we didn't know much about the software as we'd never worked with it before but we did have to learn through trial and error. I think though that that is the best way to learn things as you can try things out and learn from your mistakes. We also learnt from previous project on how to edit which was useful when doing our final project.


However the most important thing we learnt from our project was to to play to our strengths and not be over ambitious in our project. We decided to use a school as our setting and teenage actors as we could gain access to these things easily and a real school will make our film more realistic. Initially we had hoped to follow our actors down a corridor in one long dolly shot but after a failed attempt we realised as media students we don't have access to professional equipment and therefore were over ambitious in our first idea. Although it is important to stretch yourself and try things, in our final project we also realised the importance of playing to your strengths so you can produce a quality product. The project taught us a lot and will defiantly prepare me for any future media projects. 

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your project?

From the project me and Kirsty have learnt a lot about technologies. To make our project, we had to use a video camera to film and record our voice-over as well as the editing software PremierPro. Before we started our final project, our experience with the editing software especially was limited and so we did learn through trial and error. From our first shoot which we followed the actors down a corridor on a wheelie-chair with the camera, we realised how important it is to use a tri-pod to make sure your shots are not shaky as this looks so unprofessional. Also we learn about technology during the project that with the cameras we had available, it is difficult to get clear sound; this is one of the reasons we decided to not have any dialogue except the voice-over which we could import over the action. If we had used dialogue, the sound might not have been very clear and that wouldn’t make our project look professional.

When editing our film we imported all our shots in the order we wanted them and then began editing them from there. We did require help in how to create the freeze-frames we used to show about each character and we had to be very meticulous about the timing when we put the words on screen. We had to adjust this later on again when we included the voice-over so it all matched up. In fact, we chopped some of the voice-over and pieced together the parts we wanted as the script we had wrote was actually too long for the film we had shot. However, we were glad that the voice-over was too long than too short as we know what it is like to not have enough footage to create something excellent. We learnt how to use the razor tool and ripple delete which made chopping parts of our film up easier and also helped us create the quick editing effect when the character Daniel is picking up his books and when Matt is walking out of the classroom. 

I think the most important thing we learnt about technology is that is can be very temperamental! During our first shoot, we had to end probably too soon as our camera ran out of charge and our tri-pod was broken on that first shoot. Although technology obviously helped us create Science Boys we learnt that you need to plan before hand well so that everything runs smoothly.

Who would be your audience and how did you attract them?

The audience for our film Science Boys would primarily be teenagers as they would find the humour used in the film the most amusing and could relate to the characters and situations more. There is clearly an already established fan base for teen-comedy with the success of TV programmes such as The Inbetweeners and the American science-based comedy The Big Bang Theory which have incredible ratings and fans. In fact The Big Bang Theory has 17.1 million viewers worldwide showing that there is already an audience who would be attracted to the film. We used current, indie music to also appeal to the teenage audience which similar music is used in the programme and spin-off movie The Inbeetweeners. As our protagonist group of characters are teenagers, the teen audience will easily be able to relate to them and also we had our characters dressed in modern clothing that our audience would wear. We wanted the teen audience to be able to easily see parts of themselves in the characters which is why each of our characters have a different look.

However, the film could also have an adult audience because of the use of the adult version of Ashley narrating the film. Hopefully the adult audience would be able to relate to the characters because of their own past school experiences. We have also had evidence from talking to adults that they actually also enjoyed The Inbetweeners Movie when they saw it which was targeted at it teenagers. Therefore, mine and Kirsty’s Science Boys can also appeal to adults and hopefully they will be able to see that teenage life hasn’t changed that much over the years.

As you may have seen on our evaluation presentation, we believe a lot of people would be attracted to go and see Science Boys as it a fun and light-hearted film which is easy to watch and is positive. We got a quote from the co-owner of British, independent film production company Warp Films Eric Fellner who said that cinema goers are “going out to be purely entertained. They don't want thought-provoking, they don't want difficult, they don't want dark, they don't want dramatic.” Obviously Science Boys is suppose to be very entertaining as it is comedy-drama, and it is not a dark or difficult film to watch but just a fun film to watch; therefore this should attract a variety of people. However, we know that the primary audience for Science Boys is teenagers and in particular, due to its humour and the four male characters being male, teenage boys. 

What kind of media institution might distribute your media project?

The media institute me and Kirsty believed would best distribute our film was Optimum Releasing. The company releasing approximately 200 films a year and most of them are independent British films which Science Boys is. We don’t want to try and pretend that Science Boys would be a Hollywood blockbuster as it probably would not so to play to our strengths we would distribute it as a British independent film. Optimum Releasing has released films in the teen comedy/drama genre so they know how to distribute them and are clearly willing to distribute films of this genre. However another aspect of Optimum which appealed to us was the fact that some independent British films are not released in cinemas but go straight online or on DVD and Optimum offers that too with Optimum Home Entertainment. Me and Kirsty wanted to be practical in our choice of distributor and pick a company which is suited to Science Boys. We also looked into companies which could help us (Reel Big Productions) produce the film and also provide funding: for this we chose Film4. Film4 are well known for supporting independent British films and also helping films that may initially seem not very commercial (such as This Is England which went on to have great success, even abroad.) What else attracted me and Kirsty to Film4 was the back they have financially backed other teen films which we looked into such as Attack the Block, Submarine and The Inbetweeners Movie showing that they will support teen films like ours. Film4 is interested in current topics and issues and at the moment the government, and the world, are stressing on the importance of science and understanding our world more. Clearly Science Boys shows an alternative view to a culture which is growing in interest for science (such as the success of recent science documentaries made ‘cool’ by Brian Cox.) Another important reason Science Boys chose Film4 to help it financially was because to British audience especially Film4 is well-known and trusted company and when their logo appears at the beginning of a film people think it will be a quality project; we want to show that Science Boys is a quality project. 

How does your media project represent a particular social group?

Obviously Science Boys represents the social group of teenagers and specifically ‘nerdy’ teenagers. The typical stereotypes of nerds are used in Science Boys but not to mock the characters but to make it clear who they are by exaggerating ordinary traits you might find in a ‘nerdy’ person. The boys are represented to be outcast as you can see from their individual sections that they don’t have much in common, apart from a love for science, that is why they have had to come together as friends. We tried to represent this by not having them do the stereotypical cool thing like playing football or chatting up girls etc. Our characters are studying and tripping over and trying to draw crude things in classrooms to be what they believe to be cool. Hopefully this adds to the humour for the audience. However the way we represent teenagers isn’t a negative portrayal like is common now. The ‘thug’ culture surrounding teenagers now portrays them to be violet and rude and untrustworthy which isn’t a fair portrayal. Films can be solely based around this misconception now (such as Eden Lake ) whereas Science Boys really portrays teenagers, especially teen boys, to be harmless and actually easier to relate to than some adults may think. Also by using the adult version of the character Ashley to narrate the film again shows that everyone was once a teenager hopefully showing these stereotypes that teenagers are all yobs is in fact not really true. 

How does your media project use, develop or challenge the codes and convetions of your genre?

Our final piece, Science Boys, uses the characteristics of the teen comedy/drama genre by using obvious humour which appeals to a teen audience. You don’t have to think too hard when watching Science Boys to understand the humour and the characters which is what makes it part of this teen genre. Also, stereotypical characters are used which are exaggerated forms of people the audience can hopefully relate too from their own school experiences which adds to the humour but is also a convention of the genre. In the Inbetweeners Movie you have a character that thinks/wants to be cool, a dopey one, a clever one etc and in Science Boys we also tried to adopt these common teen stereotypes associated with a group of ‘misfits’; we have the ‘wannabe’, the overly-nerdy one, the dopey clumsy one and then the group leader. We also included the freeze-frames with edited on names and personality scores which isn’t automatically associated with our teen comedy/drama genre but effects similar to this can be seen in films such as Scott Pilgrim VS the World and of course Trainspotting which gives our film and edge and makes it stand out against other ones. We wanted to do this as our story is character driven so it was important the audience immediately understood the characters so they could build a relationship and care about them as the film progresses. The way in which Science Boys challenges the typical teen comedy/drama genre is that so many teen movies are set in America about American teenagers and their experiences and humour is different to British teenagers. As there has been the recent success of the Inbetweeners Movie in Europe it shows that this may soon be a typical aspect of the teen genre for it to be based around British teenagers.