Evaluation

1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge conventions of real media products?

In a childrens film, there are certain conventions that create a structure so that the audience, children, can understand and easily follow the film. These conventions are : a setting, credits, music, an establishing shot, a theme, the introduction of characters and the establishment of the genre. As a childrens film, we had to use these conventions. We created music to go in the background of our clip as there was no dialogue. This sounds was empathetic; it reflected the mood of the characters on screen which aided the children to understand the storyline. To introduce the characters, we "created" them on screen. We thought this was a clever and creative way of introducing the characters so that it appealed to the audience. As we used iStopmotion, we did not really have a background but just a plain white canvas. This was not very appealing to a younger audience as they are attracted to bright colours. If we had more time to complete and edit our childrens film opening, we would have added credits that entertained the children through bright colours and interesting font. 

photos

Comparison Of Characters

Our main character was the villain called the virus. We decided on him being our main character because we wanted his presence to run throughout the whole sequence. We believe that the character "The Virus", can be compared to Zurg from Toy Story. Both of our films are rated PG and both characters play a similar role. Their violent side comes across well to the children in our target audience and the viewers find it easy to dislike the character from the beginning. 

Target Groups

The target audience for our childrens film opening was children between the age of 6 and 11. We focused on a morale that there will always be a good person to help when someones in trouble along with the idea that the bad characters always suffer. We thought that this moral was good as it is similar to the majority of childrens films and helped represent our characters really easily. We feel that the children who watch this film will enjoy the fun, creative and exciting animations we have used in our clip. Also, the concept of play-doh is very different which will appeal to the viewers as most childrens films are repetitive and very cliche. 

Characters.

For our story, we have created some characters which fit the specification for our film opening. we have decided to make, 1 superhero, 1 villain and 2 civilians. These will be made out of play-doh. Our villain will be called "The Virus".

Our villain of the story was called the virus. We did change his appearance slightly for the final piece to make it more obvious he was the bad guy. We also changed his colour to green as we thought it resembled a "virus colour". 

We added a character of a hand. This was done to create a "angel guardian" figure for our good civilians. He helps out the characters by saving them from sticky situations. The simplicity of the hand added a different twist to our plot and made it unpredictable to our viewers. This contrast with the play-doh works really well and gave a really good effect in our final sequence.

Final Cut of Childrens Film Opening

Here is our final version of our childrens film opening, The Virus. Our main problem with our finished piece is that we were unable to finish it and edit it to the standard that we had wished for. Also, we were unable to complete 2 minutes of footage which was required. The backing music which we added to our sequence was suitable to our themes and onscreen shots but unfortunately we were unable to finish creating a soundtrack which could last the length of our film. However, we believe that we have mastered how to use iStopmotion to create fun and exciting animations which appeal to children. Overall we are disappointed not to have completed the task but we feel we can take many positives and experience from doing this task. 

research

We did some research into the prices of play-doh. We chose to get a variety of bright colours which is what   children like to see.

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ideas

WE came to an agreement that we wanted to use IStop motion because we think children will find it more interesting. We decided to use plasticine because none of use can draw good pictures to keep the children interested and we thought using real people as actors would take too long.

These are some videos we researched:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpWM0FNPZSs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmFXhvErLPM

Previous students work analysis

We watched several clips of previous students children's film openings and we noticed a few things that were wrong with them. Firstly we thought they were generally quite boring and some seemed so unrealistic that the target audience would get very bored. The clips lacked lots of colour which is one of the main attractions for children at a first glimpse of a film opening. Also in some of the music it seemed too mature and boring for the target audience. From this we have gathered that our clip must be colourful, loud and energetic and have a better narrative from the beginning to ensure that the viewers are satisfied and can sustain a good level of interest.

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Why do PG?

We have decided to do a PG as we thought there is more ideas and themes we can follow and less restrictions. This will make it easier for us to come up with an interesting storyline and we are more likely to know what the target audience prefer as we are closer to that age group. We decided not to do a U rated film as it would limit lots of our ideas and we would have to be very careful not to push the boundaries of a PG.

A Bugs Life U

There is a simple storyline throughout the film which is the reason the film is rated a U. There is mild discrimination between 2 species of insect and a hint of bullying. This could be questioned as U films should not contain any discrimination. There are not any sexual references or drugs and the content is very easy for children to follow alone without any guidance.

High School Musical PG

High school musical is a PG film. Discrimination is used in the film to suggest that boys should not act or sing but only play sport. This is resolved in the end when everyone realises its not fair to discriminate against different kinds of people. There are more adult themes shown throughout the film. For example the ongoing love situation between 3 characters, Troy, Sharpay and Gabriella. There is no references to drugs or violence but some sexual references are hinted.

U Criteria

U stands for Universal and is suitable for any viewer over the age of 5. It must have a positive moral framework and offer reassuring counterbalances to any threat. It is suitable for children to view alone and cant contain any bad language, drugs, discrimination and sex/sexual references.

PG Criteria

PG stands for parental guidance. It is suitable for 8 years old and over. It is the parents responsibility to decide if the children can handle to content of the film. Discrimination may be used but only for educational purpose. Drugs can be discussed but not seen. There can be horror but it must be short and not intense. It can contain mild bad language. The themes can be more grown up than a U and education is key.

opening sequence conventions

Credits-The credits in children's film openings help give a feel and should be bright and colourful to keep them interested.

Sound-The sound is usually and should be happy, vibrant and up beat music. This creates a nice atmosphere for the film opening.

Setting-The setting should be established through an establishing shot to set the scene and give the audience as feel of where the film is going to be mainly based around.

Characters-The characters must be introduced early on so the viewers can gain a feel for them and get to to know their personalities.

Colours-The colours should be bright and attractive to keep the audience entertained and make them feel like they are going to be seeing a happy children's film.

Themes-The themes should be established straight away so we get to know the genre and purpose of the film and whats going to happen.

Monsters vs aliens sci fi notes

The film is a children's science-fiction. We know this through many things. First of all, the title states the main theme of the film which is the battle between the monsters and the aliens. Comedy is added to reduce the scare factor as the target audience is children. The appearance of the characters helps this as they are all brightly coloured, their shape is abnormal and they have human characteristics. The animation decreases the scare factor as well as the children are well aware that this is not realistic. As its sci fi the use of strange and weird creatures excited the children viewers as when you are younger you are more interested in these things.

monsters inc. fantasy genre notes

Straight from the beginning there was happy and up beat jazz music which helps to keep the viewers interested The credits were arranged in a fun way with a strange font. As they were very colourful and bright it attracted the target audience and also helped keep them entertained. There was an introduction of characters which gets the viewers immediately engaged in the film. The use of suspense from the supposed to be scary monsters is discarded with humour so the children don't get to scared and gives us a mix of fantasy and comedy. The theme and narrative are told to use at the beginning and lays out the storyline and lets us know what to expect from the monsters trying to catch the scream.

Jingle All The Way - Action

"Jingle All The Way" (1996) - Genre : Children's Action/Comedy.

Cinematography.
There are a massive range of shots used to represent lots of different situations. For example, there are reaction shots and close-ups to see the characters feelings and emotions towards one another.

Editing.
The credits are in a "superhero" theme. Tranisitions are used to introduce the credits which is an interesting way for the credits to appear. The bright colours are aimed directly at the target audience which is children. This keeps them attached and focused on the film.

Mise-en-scene.
The character which is played by Arnold Schwarzenegger is dressed in very dark and dull clothing. This is to make him seem boring and almost like a "villain" to the audience.

Sound.
There is lots of diagetic sound in the opening to the film. For example, there is clapping, phone calls and music which is being played in the shop. This music also helps us to gain an atmosphere and keep the viewer focused. As the audience is children, the music is quite cheerful and merry which will keep them excited and make them want to watch on.

Animation.
In the opening of the film, an animatronic is used to represent the Turboman character. Apart from that, no other animation techniques are used.

Jumanji - Adventure

Editing In Jumanji


The editing in Jumanji mainly consisted of plain cuts to help give the opening scenes some rhythm and to keep it flowing rather than waiting for fades etc. The use of linear editing helps us to keep track of time and space. The sound of the beating of the drum helps us to understand where and when the board game is near. A jump shot is used when the character Alan Parrish is being beaten up by the other boys.

Favourite Children's Film - Conventions

The film we chose as our favourite children's film is Toy Story (1995).  The film meets the conventions of a children's film opening as it sets the scene of Andy's bedroom, the home of the toys. We also see the introduction of the characters, most recognisably Woody. The genre is established straight away as a children's animated film. The colours are all bright which help to keep the younger viewers interested. There is quite happy music in the opening first 2 minutes of the movie

Preliminary Task - Video

To make this video, we had to go out and film several different clips of video which would come together to make one video clip. We had to create a variety of different camera shots during our film. However, we only had one camera between us so we had to position our camera correctly and cut and edit our film so it flowed continuously. We used Final Cut Express to edit our video so that they all joined together to resemble a continuous film. 

We had difficulties whilst filming our clip because there was only Dale and I so we had to position our tripod in positions where we were not able to see the footage. This meant that some of our footage was slightly off centre. But our main problem came when we didn't follow the "180 degree rule". We had to re-film the conversation shots but this occurred the next day. Our appearance, clothes and setting would all be different. We had to use two completely different characters as Dale was not here for the re-shoot. 

The editing was relatively easy to do but during the conversation, the change in tone of voice was noticeable as we had to reposition our camera.

description of shots

we had an establishing shot of the refectory doors which introduced our character and location. We then had a close up of the mobile phone to show what our character was doing. There was then a match on action shot to show some continuity in the filming process. We then introduced our second character through an action shot. to then show some communication between our two characters together we had a long shot. Finally we had a conversation from both sides of the characters to show some facial expressions and body language.

Preliminary Task