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. 

Evaluation Interview

Me and Kirsty were interviewed by Mr Earl about our project, Science Boys. We answered questions about why we chose to have those specifuc characters, why we chose the institutions we, who we saw our target audience as etc. Hopefully this interview will gvie you an idea about why we chose to do the things we did and the areas of our project we are very proud of.

The interview process was slightly strange at first (as you may be able to tell) but me and Kirsty soon found it easier as it went on. I think it is always difficult to justify the decisions you ahve mde about a peice of work but hopefully you will be able to see how we came up with our ideas.

Video Inspiration

We used these videos in our evaluation presentation to the class to show where we gained inspiration from. They are from Trainspotting, Resevoir Dogs and Hot Fuzz.

Evaluation Presentation

Music & Voice-Over

Kirsty found the music we used for 'Science Boys'. It is a cover fo the Arctic Moneky's song Mardy Bum but it is just the instromental we got from YouTube which someone had recorded. Having just an instromental meant that the voice-over would work more effectively over the top as it wouldn't be a clash of words. Also however, it is much harder to find a cover which we could use to not break copyright laws which is actually effective enough as the original. Therefore, the instumental worked really well for us. We wanted to use a British band's music becasue our film is about British teenagers and its main audience will be British teenagers. Therefore the msuic would ahve to appeal to teenagers and be very current which we feel the Artci Moneky's work is. Also, from our research The Inbetweeners and its movie use a lot of ArcticMoneky tacks so we knew it would fit with our teen-comedy drama.

Originally our voice-over was going to be the character Matt, then we changed it to be the character Ashley who was the dominating leader character. However, when we began recording our initla voice-over the teenage voice we used from Sam Humby didn't sound effective enough or funny enough. Also, when Sam's voice was recorded it sounded much younger and we didn't think it fit the character Ashley. Micahel Wilson who plays Ashley was unavailable to record a voice-over so we had to rethink our original plan. Instead, with inspiration from Mr Earl, we decided to do a voice-over which was the character Ashely looking back on his school life and his school friends. We had to of course re-write the script and then asked Mr Earl if he woould record it for us. When editing we reduced some of the script so it would fit better with the length of each character montage clip. However, by having the voice-over being an adult looking back at school we can also appeal to the adult/parent audience who can get humour from thinking of their school days and relating to the film that way.

Overall, I think the voice-over and music really finish 'Science Boys' off anf when compared to our rough-cut which had no sound seems a 100% more professional and fits with the genre. I'm very pleased with the music we used and the voice-over scipt and the way it was said.

Science Boys: The Final Edition!

Here is mine and Kirsty's opening of the film 'Science Boys'. Hope you enjoy it....