The narrative in my film

I found that the narrative for my film was not very clear, the audience struggled to follow it and often got confused with who was who. This is something that I would change if I was to create my film again. I was following todorvs theory of narrative for the making of my film. The film started with an equilbrium, this was were Lily starts college and meets a boy, there was then a disruption this is were Lily finds out Leon has a girlfriend. After this there is a new equilbrium that is formed, this is were Lily and her best friend Jay become a couple. I thought that this one of the best parts of the narrative, I just needed to make it clearer who the characters were at the begining of the film.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The audience feedback allowed me to see what went wrong in the film that I created, it lets me see what needs to be improved. The first thing that I would change about film is the sound frequency, this is because in some parts of the film it was louder than others and also the background noises were louder than the characters speech so you were not able to hear clearly what they were saying. Another thing is that I would make the characters a lot clearer, the audience seemed to get confused on who was who this made them struggle with the plot. I would make it clear at the begining of who is who if I was going to make it again. The last thing that i would change about my film is that I would make sure that the characters change there clothing through the film, this is so the audience will be able to recognise that it is a new day. The feedback has helped me a lot and has shown noth what I have done well and what needs imrpoving in my film.

Audience Feedback

I agree with a lot of the comments that tehy audience gave me. One of them mentioned something about the clothing. This is a big mistake which I made in the film and when I noticed it was too late to do anything about it. 'Were was the comedy?' this is a comment that a memeber of the audience said, the comedy was based around Lily with doing silly things like falling over and making a fool of herself. Not everybody has the same humour so this paticular person may not have found this film funny but others did. A lot of the audience struggled with which character was who so I would make sure that I would make it clearer.

Outakes of LIfe of Lily

This is showing the behind the scenes footage of what happened whilst we was filming. It shows were we went wrong and how many times we have to go over one scene in the film as we couldnt get it right.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

The two ancillary tasks that I had to create to go with my main product (film) was a review of the film and a poster. When I was making the the ancillary tasks I tried to follow a theme through out them, this is so the audience would be able to recognise that they were a part of the same production. I used the same images in both the poster and review, also I used the same font and I placed the tag line (two boys one girl...which one will it be?) on both of the ancillary tasks. Having two ancillary tasks is going to help draw the target audience in to watch the film. The two ancillary tasks are what is going to advertise the film intill the film is released. I have posted the poster and review on places were I know the target audience are going to look. I have mainly used social networking sites like facebook and twitter. They are going to give the audience little bits of detail of what is going to happen in the film.
I looked at many different posters before I created my poster, this was to help give inspiration. I have used two images that involve the main character Lily with each of the male leads, this will allow the audience to think of which male she is going to end up with. I have used the same images that are from both the film and the review.











I had a look at plenty of different reviews to help me with how to lay mine out and what you should right in the review. This helped me a lot for when I created my review. In the review I have included the actors that star in my film and what makes the film so good. The review is going to give the audience interesting details about the film and make them want to go and see it.













Through out all of the products I have created I gave tried to keep a theme so the audience are able to see that they are a part of the same thing.

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

Through out the making of my film I tried to follow the codes and conventions of rom-coms as best as possible. I watched a variety of different rom-coms so I was able to see what most of the codes and conventions are through a rom-com.
Boy meets girl is a convention that you see in all rom-coms, this is a very important element of the film as it brings the romance that you want in to it. In my film I had the boy meets girl very early on in the film, as it allows you to see the romance grow in both good and bad ways. As the audience it makes you feel more involved as you are able to relate your own relationship problems to the film.
Humour is another improtant aspect that is put into rom-coms. The humour is what brings the comedy to the film without this the film would not be a rom-com. The comedy brings the fun factor to the film and makes the audience smile. I have brought the comedy in through the animation that is used through out my film.
Happy endings are also always importnat in rom-coms as you want the audeince to feel happy once they have finished watching the film, you dont come accross many rom-coms that dont have a happy ending. I have made the ending of my film happy as it allowws the audinece to feel relief and happy for the characters that are in the film.
It is always important to have atwist in the plot as it draws the audience in more and stops them from getting bored. I have included a twist in my plot, Leon is cheating on the Heroine (Lily) who then ends up going out with her best friend Jay. This allows the audience to think more and gets them feelling exicted and want to watch more.
All these codes and conventions are what I feel will attract my target audience.

My final poster

This is the final poster for my film. I included all the main characters that are in my film and also a bit of the animation. I have included a tag line as I feel that this will help draw my traget audiences attention. I have also used colours that the target audience like to helo draw there attention.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction, planning and evaluation stages?

Research stage
Through the research stage of my film, the main new technology that I used was the internet. The internet allowed me to look at a wide range of different things from films to film reviews. YouTube was one of the main things that I used in the construction stage as it allowed me to look at a variety of different short films and trailers. This helped me decide on what I was going to make for my A2 project; it gave me inspiration and many ideas for what I wanted to do for my project. I also used the website IMDB a lot in the construction stage of my work as it allowed me to look at the different posters and reviews and helped me get ideas for what I wanted to do. Below is one of the many short films/trailers that I looked at.


Planning Stage
The first thing that I had to do in the planning stage was choose the genre that I wanted of the short film that I was making. New technology allowed me to look at all the different genres, I used a website that gave me all the genres and explained which of them were. The website was http://www.filmsite.org/genres.html. I also used a video camera to ask the target audience of what genre they most enjoy and why. This is another form of new media technology. Throughout the planning stage I also used YouTube as I was able to look at variety of short films that fell under the genre of rom-com. Another new media technology that I used to help me with the planning stages of my work was social networking sites (facebook) as it allowed me to approach the target audience in a way they feel comfortable as they use social networking sites a lot. I asked the target audience what they like about rom-coms and would a rom-com work as a short film. I also used a DVD player as this allowed me to look at previous students work. This allowed me to see the standard of work that was expected. I used many different new media technologies in the planning stage of my work another form of technology that I used was scanner. I used a scanner as I had done things by hand (storyboard) and they needed to be uploaded onto my blog and this is one of the ways in which you could do this.
Consturuction Stage
Through the construction stage of my film I used a wide range of different types of new media technologies. I used a video camera for the filming of the film I was creating. I also used a camera through the filming of my film as I wanted to take still shots of us filming to show us all working as a team. To make the poster for the film I used Photoshop which again is another type of new media technologies. This allowed me to create the best poster possible. Illustrator was also used; this was to create the review for the film. Once we had finished filming our film we had to edit and I used the software windows movie maker, this was a very good piece of editing software.
Evaluation Stage
During the evaluation stage of my film YouTube was one of the main things that I used this is because it was the way in which we could get the target audience to watch my film. YouTube is where we uploaded our film, pitch and everything else that was created to help us with our film.

Throughout each of stages I was blogging to show what I have done through the making of my film. Here are images of some of the new media technologies I used througout the making of my film.

Life of Lily

This is my film.

Animation

I have used animation in the film as I think that it works well there has been succesfull films and programmes that have used animation, one of the most famous ones is The Lizzie Mcguire Movie. Here is some clips of the animation that is going to be used in my film.

Editing

The editing software that we used to edit the film was windows movie maker. We found this easy to use and had no problems while editing the film.

Genre

This is the target audiences feedback to what genres they like and why.

Pictures taking during filming

Finished review

This is my review finished , i created this on illustrator. I used images that are from the film, i showed Lily with two different boys as I wanted the audience to be questioning which one she will be with. I have had the the colour theme as black and white as it stands out a lot. This took a long time for me to create and get it the way I wanted.

Process of my film review

Film review of Bride Wars

"Is there anything better than Vera Wang?" they squeal, although this question is meant rhetorically. Product placements taken care of, director Gary Winick sends the twosome scuttling from boutique to hotel while the jaunty soundtrack reminds us that this is intended as a light, frothy comedy as opposed to, say, the satanic black mass we might otherwise take it for.
Our deepest condolences to Hudson as the ironically named "Liv". Her dead eyes and rouged cheeks suggest she's bypassed the wedding and gone straight to the funeral.

Review of Twilight breaking Dawn

The suits behind the flamboyantly successful Twilight movie franchise — worth £1.2  billion and counting — have followed Harry Potter’s lead by splitting the final novel into two.
But whereas the Potter series gained from that decision, the Twilight Saga loses almost all its impetus.
In the Potter stories, extra screen time allowed the leading characters to deepen; the reverse is true here.
This film, a certain box-office hit thanks to the saga’s fanatical following, covers the first half of Meyer’s fourth book.
It starts with the lavish wedding of hot yet cool vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson), aged 108, to feisty yet droopy 18-year-old Bella (Kristen Stewart).
The nuptials are so kitsch they could have been designed by Russell Grant, and take a seemingly endless half-hour.
Anyone not obsessed with hair, make-up and lingerie may find it a near-death experience.

The inaction moves on to a turgid honeymoon on an island near Rio.
There’s lovemaking so passionless it barely warrants a 12A certificate, accompanied by the world’s weediest pop music.
From there it’s on to the speediest pregnancy in history, and an alarmingly gruesome childbirth.
The film-makers’ coyness about sex is strangely at odds with the grisliness of the Caesarean section, which might well put an impressionable 11-year-old girl off ever giving birth.
The only action comes in the form of a desultory battle towards the end, badly choreographed and featuring unpersuasive computer animation.
During this, the third lead, werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner), has to choose between his own kind and continuing to stalk his emo ex-girlfriend. Tough call.

Teenage girls will probably be less interested in the story than in the earliest point where Mr Lautner rips off his shirt: these film-makers know their audience, and it’s within seconds of the opening.
The movie seems deeply confused as to how vampires procreate.
Now it is the normal human way, whereas earlier in the series vampires continued their line by biting humans.
The writers seem to be changing the rules as they go along.
Poor old Edward is clearly as much in the dark as the audience.
At one point, he goes on a search engine to look up ‘demon children’.
The mystery is why he didn’t go to it a bit earlier and look up ‘birth control’.
Skip the next two paragraphs if you don’t want to read a spoiler, but the climax depends on the notion that a grown-up werewolf can ‘imprint’ upon a baby at birth and make that offspring forever tied sexually to him.
Yes, a werewolf can fall in love with a baby, and vice versa!
The idea is deeply creepy, bordering on paedophile, and completely at odds with the surely much healthier notion that an adult has the right to fall in love with anyone he or she chooses. Maybe even a non-werewolf.
Director Bill Condon has made classy films in the past, notably Gods And Monsters and Kinsey, but he has never shown much sense of humour or feeling for pace or action.
He is ideally unsuited to this material.
His attitude towards the Twilight Saga is reverential. There is none of the intentional comedy that enlivened the first Twilight movie.
The only laughs in this are from the po-faced dialogue, potty plotting and wooden performances.

First idea for poster

This is the first poster which I created for my film. I didnt choose this to be my final poster as it doesn't follow all of the codes and conventions for a poster. It doesn't follow them as I have used a montage of images and posters normally concentrate on one narrative image.

Progression of my film poster

I changed how I said I was going to create my poster, as i struggled with the other way and also think that this way will attract the audience a lot more.

Prop List

There are two main areas use within the film that include a varietys of different props and these Rebeccas bedroom and Demis house.
Rebeccas bedroom

• Teddy



• Laptop



• Bed



• Bedroom essentials

Demis house

• stairs/landing



• laptop



• phone



• living room

Clothing

• Lily, jeans, cardigan, t-shirt and ballet pumps



• Leon, jeans, top and plimsolls



• Jay, jeams, hoody and converse

Shot types in my film

shot types that I have used in my film:

• close up


• mid shot


• long shot


• two shot

Animation

Animation is going to play a big part in my film. I think that animation will work well as it will bring the comedy into the film as the animation is going to be showing Lilys (main character) thoughts, feelings and embarrasing things she has done in her life. Here is a image of our animation Lily.

Target Audience for my film

These are the target audience for my film, teenage girls. The film I am creating is something that teenage girls enjoy I know this from the questionairre that I handed out.

Inspirtation for poster

This film poster is the one that has inspired me the most. I like hoow there is images of the different couples in scenes from the film. This allows the audience to think, they instantly start thinking of what might and what moght not be happening in the film. I want to make my film poster similar to this as I think that it works well.

Photos of the actors that are in my film

These are the images of the actors that are in my film David Wilson, April Leggit and Adam Pritchard.

Narrative themes

Narrative themes are explored through media texts like family values, social class amd sexuality, these normally explored by the the crime dramas. Some of the narrative themes that are used in my film are:

• Rleationships
• Friendship
• Peer pressure
• Love
• Boy meets girl

Representation

Representation is the meaning in which the ways things are depicted. It realtes to the representation of reality in media. It allows you to know how the audience receive and consume the media. Our knowledge of people come through the media, so how they are represented through the media is important.

Production name

This is the style that I chose to have my production name in. I chose for it to look like this as it stands out so will people will be able to notice it easily. Also there are any other production names that look like mine, so it makes more original. I played with the font a lot intill i decdied with one I have but I new from the beginning that I wanted to use purple for the colour.

Binary Oppositions in my film

Jay follows the oppositional ideology, a geek not very popular and doesnt follow latest fashion and trends. His best friend is a girl and no one never seems him with anyone else so other people think he is gay as he has no male freinds. Being gay also falls under the oppositional ideology.

Love sick

This is a rom-com, it has gave me many ideas for what to do for my film. I think that this is a very good short film. I like how they have the man talking as a voice over and not actually as aprt of the film. they have created it so we can here is thoughts and I think that this works very well in the film and I would quite like doing this in my film.

The Plan

I like how this film is in black and white, it makes the film more intense. This film is about a man wanting to move on in life but it doesnt go as well as he thought intill the very end. i think that the cliffhanger is very good atthe end as it leaves you thinking of what is going to happen next with him.

Dominant Ideology

Dominant ideology is another one of the binary oppositions. The dominant ideology is people/objects that are shown in the dominant world, they are shown in the big hollywood blockbusters. Often people that fall under oppositional ideology want to look like and be the people that are in the dominant ideology as they see them as being perfect. The picture below shows a person that fits under the dominant ideology.

Oppositional Ideology

Oppositinal ideology is showing a part of the binary oppositions. Oppositional ideology are people/objects that are not shown in the dominant world. You dont see the oppositional ideology very often in films, television and magazine. It is ver rare if you do, a television programme that does show oppositional ideology glee. This programme had boy in a wheel chair, many people from different ethnic background and a girl that has down syndrome.

Representation

Stuart Hall is a major theorist for representation and this is a quote from him about representation.
" The power to represent the world in certain ways. And because there are so many different and conflicting ways in which meaning about the worl can be constructed, it matters profoundly what and who gets left out, and how things, people, events and relationships are represented."

Life of Lily

Rom-coms are a popular genre in films this means that they are usually big hollywood block busters. This means that for my film I will follow the connotations for big hollywood block busters.

Binary Oppositions

Binary oppositions are a pair of opposites this was thought by the the structalist Levi Strauss. Some of the opposites are very simple e.g. raw vs cooked but then they can be used in a more powerfull manner and more meaning is behing the oppositions e.g. Black vs White, black is a sign of darkness and danegr and white is showing purity and goodness.
Examples of binary opposititions:
Dominant ideology - Oppositional ideology
Male - Female
Abled - Disabled
Young - Old

Narrative theory used in my film

I have followed todorovs theory through my film.

• Equilbrium, Lily starts college and is looking to meet new friends and boyfriend.


• Disruption, She meets a young boy called Leon and starts to like him but finds out that he is dating her step sister who she doesnt live with.


• Resolution, Jay her bestfriend comforts and helps her get throught it. Jay kisses Lily.


• New equilibrium, Jay and Lily are no boyfriend and girlfriend.

Narrative Theory

The narrative is the way in which a story is told. There are two main theorists for narrative and these are Propp and Todorov who are both russian formalists. Propp has six steps for the structure of narrative and these are:

1. Preperation, a community/family is in an orderdered state of being.
   


2. Complication, the villian harms a member of the heros family. The hero plans action agaisnt the villain.



3. Transference, the hero is giving a magical gift, the hero arrives at the place he can fulfil his quest.



4. Struggle, there is a struggle between the hero and the villian.



5. Return, the hero escapes, there is a task set for the hero, the hero accomplishes the task.
   


6. Recognition, the hero is rewarded.
   

There are four steps for todorov's narratives structure and these are:

1. Equilibrium, the starting balance in the story, where normality is held.



2. Disruption, an event that breaks the normaility and causes irregular changes in the enviorment.



3. Resolution, eventually succeed in overcoming the disruption.



4. New equilibrium, new order is restored. Anything affected by disruption is mostly to have changed.
   
   

Propps theory also follows characters types in films, he beleives that every character in a film will follow one of the character types. The character types are:

• Hero, reacts to the donor, marries the princess.



• Villian, struggles against hero.



• Helper, helps the hero in the quest.



• Donor, prepares the hero. or gives the hero a magical object.



• Dispatcher, character that makes the lack known and sends the hero off.



• Her father, gives the task to the hero and detects the false hero.



• Prize, this is who the hero is looking for on his quest and will marry.
  


• False hero, takes the credit for the heros work or trys to my the princess.

Production Name

The production name for my film is DDR. I have chosen this for my production name as the letters are the intials of everyone who is making the film.

Actors in the film

There are three main actors in the film that I am making. The actors that I chosen to be in my film are Adam Pritchard as Leon,David Wilson as Jay and April Leggit as Lily.

Ideas for my poster

These are quick sketches I have made of two diffrent ideas for the film poster I am creating.

Final Script

*Setting up the camera and the room fast speed*

Mind Lily: Hi I’m Lily and I am just a normal 17 year old.

*Looks at teddy and shoves it off the bed and looks shifty*

Mind Lily: Alright so I am not completely normal… Anyway this is my video diary of everything that happened last year, my crazy friends, my crazy life and my gorgeous boyfriend…

*Cartoon love heart appears above her head.*

Mind Lily: Don’t get me wrong , there was some dark moments but it’s all good as I fall in love with a vampire *giggles* I wish. Anyway let’s start from the first day of college.

*Shows Lily walking up to college.*

Mind Lily: I was just walking to college trying, excited for the first day and that’s when I saw him for the first time… no not my current boyfriend I mean Leon.

*Freeze Frame Animation Lily comes up*

And of course I pulled the classic stunt done a million times over; I fell at his feet. Literally like on my face.

*Animation face palms and it shows the action of Lily falling over. –splat*

Well obviously he did a full on laugh. And I couldn’t help but laugh too. How else could I make an already embarrassing situation worse? I thought that was the end of it and I hoped I would never see him ever again. Yeah right as if the world would let that happen…

*Leon and Lily bump into each other *

Leon: Oh sorry, Hey aren’t you that chick that landed on me this morning?

Past Lily: Yeah but technically I didn’t fall on you; I fell in front of you

*Animation*

Present Lily: *Growls* that was the closest I ever got to him. Anyway…

Leon: It’s a shame no one was filming it. Coulda been a great YouTube hit. *laughs*

Past Lily: True but I have done worse than that…

*Shows clips of her falling over by slipping on mud, backwards off some railings and sideways off a wall. With lots of splat noises.*

Leon: *chuckles* you got msn?

Past Lily: *nervously* Yeah? *eyes Narrow*

Leon: Give me your number I will text it you.

*See those two putting numbers in phone.*

Leon: Talk to you tonight?

Past Lily: *Acting chilled out* Yeah sure.

*Leon leaves, leaving Lily grinning from ear to ear (Animated). She goes to meet Jay*

Jay: What are you so happy about?

Mind Lily: Bless Jay, he is a proper Chav on the outside side but you’d never know what he is really like until you get to know him.

Past Lily: Oh you know just met this guy.

Jay: *Pretends to be happy* Sweet, who? Anyone I know? I ain’t seen anyone amazing yet. All a bit average really. *frowns*

Past Lily: Leon *smiles and giggles*

Jay: Him? Meh he’s nothing special. Defiantly average. But whatever makes you happy. Hey you heard they are giving us sex ed again? I still think junior school was good enough to be honest.

Past Lily: Where you were from maybe ours was well confusing. *Animation* It was all about ships docking in to ports and just made us even more confused that we already were. One of the girls wouldn’t get on a boat after for fear of getting pregnant.

*Both Giggle*

Mind Lily: Just as he promised Leon was online that night. I mean obviously I believed that he was very defiantly, kinda, sorta, maybe into me. Considering the first thing he asked was…

Leon: *Voice over, showing Leon typing.* So Lily, you have a boyfriend?

Past Lily: *Voice over, Showing Lily typing.* No do you? A girlfriend I mean.

Leon: Nah.

Mind Lily: Things escalated from there I was telling him everything he wanted to know about me and I mean everything. We didn’t speak much not in person just online, but I didn’t mind. We talked about college, our families, our wants and our fears. I was convinced he was going to ask me out any day now. He even said I love you at one point. Anyone would have been expecting something to happen to bring us together.

Jay: Hey have you heard?!

Past Lily: No? What’s up?

Jay: LEON HAS A GIRLFRIEND!

Past Lily: WHAT!

Mind Lily: I went numb. Time seemed to stop. My chest ached. I could barely breathe.

*Jay hugs Lily*

Jay: He isn’t worth it.

Past Lily: It appears so.

Jay: You need to talk to him and see what happened.

Past Lily: Yeah.

Mind Lily: Jay went after a more hugs and I went up my computer and waited for him to come online he came on very late for him around twelveish. The anger and fury was pounding though my blood.

Past Lily: When exactly were you planning to tell me you have a girlfriend?

Leon: Wasn’t planning too…

Past Lily: How long have you been going out with her?

Leon: 6 months

Past Lily: 6 months!! And you have not told me. Thanks. Who is this girl then?

Leon: Jen
Mind lily: it can’t be her. It’s got to be another Jen.

Leon: your sister!

Animation*heart braking*

Past lily: she’s my sister! How could you not tell me!

*turns the computer off in anger *

Jay: lily, are you okay?

*Leon tries to call Lily*

Lily: Just leave me alone please

*Rejects phone call in anger*

*run down stairs and phones sister*

Freeze frame

*animation* we was arguing for hours. I’m talking to Leon again.

*Lily gets off the phone and cries her eyes out
Jay goes and gives lily a hug to comfort her
Goes to give her a kiss*

*Freeze frame of Lilly looking at jay*

Mind lily: well that was interesting.

*Lily and jay kiss again*

Present lily: (in her room) well that was the excitement from that year.

*Jay walks in kisses lily on the head.*

Jay: what are you doing?

Lily: Just making a video diary.

Jay: well let’s finish it there

*leans over lily and turns video camera off*

Pitch of Life of Lily

Title of Film

I have chosen for the title of the film I am making to be Life of Lily. The reason that I chose this for the title of my film is because the main character in the film is called Lily and throughout the film we are going to be following her and look at both the good bad things that appear in her life. I think that the title works well with the film as through the film the audience only see Lily's perspective as it follows a one person narrative.

Progression of script

Film Posters

I have looked at four film posters that I like and have annotated them. I have picked out what works best on the posters. Below are pictures pf the anntotations that I made on the posters.

Location of my film

The main locations of were my film is being filmed is in a house, the rooms that are used are the living room, bedroom and the stairs.

Storyboard

Angus thongs and perfect snogging

This film inspired me as it follows the connotations of a diary entry and thiis how I would like my film to be. I like the idea of a diary as it follows the narrative of one character and it makes the film more personal.

Lizzie Mcguire

Lizzie Mcguire is a film that has inspired me and gave me ideas of what to do with my own film. I like the use of animation within this film, I find it very interesting how they have used an animation lizzie through the film it adds more humour to the film. I am going to add animation to my film as I think that it will work really well in my film.

Images showing things that the Target audinece like