Filming

To film our Teen angst we had to use various equipment to make it possible. The first thing we had to use was a HD video recorder. This allowed us to film each scene to a good quality We had to learn how to use the cameras, by playing and pausing in between scenes, zooming in to adjust our framing and how to watch we'd just filmed so we could make any immediate changes or adaptions. We used many filming techniques that we had learnt from other teen angst films during research such as; we used many of the same camera angles as Wild Child, like long shots and birds-eye view.


We began by filming all the scenes in school, this took about 2 hours of filming, and re-filming if we felt it could have been better, we then had to book the cameras and take them out of school in our own time to film all the scenes at home. We filmed in two different locations. When filming we had to use many different shots,levels and angles. We also had to take into account good framing and start thinking about where we wanted to add our titles in. We filmed the same scenes more than once from different angles so we could decide in editing which looked more effective. As this took so long by the time we were finishing filming it was dark outside and this meant our lighting appeared very dark so we already knew that was something we'd have to improve during the editing process. From watching other teen angsts films such as Wild Child and LOL, all of them have very high key lighting, mostly to connote the positive mood, so we wanted to incorporate that in our own film as we believed it was very effective.

We also needed a tripod to make sure our filming was steady and not shaky. The tripod meant our filming was better quality and appear more professional. It allowed us to adjust the height, angle and distance so achieve the best possible shots, to create a better film.

Another piece of equipment we used during filming was a dolly. This is a tripod on wheels. It allowed us to film and walk without the camera shaking. This meant we could do tracking shots and add better angles and shots to our film, whilst it was still smooth shot.

Titles and Connotations.

The title of our film is called Karma. We chose this because we thought it would be an appropriate and effective name for a Teen angst. This is because Karma is a common saying among teenagers today, so it connotes our film is modern and considered cool, which would attract our target audience, who care keeping up to date with what's cool and most talked about it; which is what we hope to achieve from our film.

Another reason we decided the title Karma would be fitting is it is foreshadowing of how the plot develops in the film. This is because Caitlin is initially the popular sister, who is mean to her sister Charlotte and isolates her. Due to Caitlin's nasty behaviour Charlotte has no friends and is unhappy in school and out. However Caitlin eventually realises her friends are all fake, are only her friends to be popular and don't really care about her, she is also left alone and friendless. This is where the title forebodes the plot as she was horrible and could be considered karma that her friends turn against her.

The font for our title we chose to be Grey with pink shadowing this incorporates the stereotypical convention from teen angsts that pink will attract the female target audience, whilst at the same time challenging this convention with a countertype grey. We chose to make it grey for various reason. It makes the pink stand out more, its quite bold and stone like, we thought this effectively connotes it's importance. It also emphasises the pink in the title and gives a mysterious effect, which we linked to the semantics of the title itself.

Music

We had many different ideas and options for our music, we wanted it to be upbeat, exciting and for it to sound modern so would be more relatable for the target audience. We decided the perfect piece of music to use in our film would be the well known song; "Love is Easy" by Mcfly. However due to copyright reasons we had to contact them and get permission. Despite trying to contact them through Email, Twitter and Facebook, we were unsuccessful in receiving a response to we had to find an alternative. We had several different options we'd found on freeplaymusic, such as; "Wake Up" and "I can do it." However we chose not to use this in the end as it didn't fit as well as the pieces we settled with.

The first piece of music in our teen angst we used was called; "Clear." We used this in the title sequence of our film when the two sisters are getting ready for school. We chose this song because it is upbeat and exciting so would engage the audience immediately. It also fit with the pace of our film and fit well with the idea of them getting ready. We got the idea to make our music upbeat and fast-pace from; Angus, Thongs and Perfect snogging. They used the song; "She's so lovely" by Scouting for girls. This song is popular with the female audience, is well known and fast-pace. It straight away engaged the audience and is a positive song, We wanted our music to have the same effect by drawing the audience in and having a cheerful sounding song so they feel like they're enjoying themselves.


http://www.freeplaymusic.com/search.aspx?q=clear

We then used our second piece of music is called; "Loving everything I find." This song is still upbeat but slightly slower and quieter, this went well with our opening scene. The song sounds very stereotypical of a teen angst which would be familiar to many of the audience and keep them interested, it also sounds like a love song which straight away connotes that Peter will be the 'love interest' or 'crush' within  this movie. This is a stereotypical connotation of a teen angst so used the music to represent this. We got this idea from our research of teen angsts. In Mean Girls when Cady first meets Aaron they use the same technique by using a romantic music playing the background. It is foreboding for the plot and relationship between the two characters.

http://www.freeplaymusic.com/search.aspx?q=loving%20everything%20i%20find

We also used sound effects in our film. For example at the beginning we use an alarm sound to add to the realism of our teen angst. This will also be relatable to the target audience who will most likely have a similar alarm to wake them up for school.

Editing

To edit our film we used; Final Cut Pro on the Macs. Our editing initially was quite simple, we had to cut the scenes, put them into the correct order and delete any unnecessary footage. After we finished doing this we realised we needed a few more scenes filmed to make our film flow better and to allow enough time to add a voiceover. We used this as an opportunity to add some more editing techniques. We filmed a scene of a group of people walking through the 6th form door, as if walking to school. We then edited this to speed up and be 4x as fast. This gave the effect of time passing and fit nicely in our film. We also edited another scene to be sped up; where Charlotte is walking through the corridor towards the camera which is tracking with her. This suggested time was passing quickly and gave us the opportunity to add a voiceover at this point in the film.

Another use of editing we used was Transitions, we did this to keep it interesting and flow better. One example of a transition we used was a slide. We used a split screen when the two sisters are putting on their mascara, and got them to both slide in. This is also when the title appears. The transition on this scene made the title stand out and appear important.

We used split screen in a few scenes to show the girls were both getting ready for school at the same time, it was also useful in our film because it meant we could keep our title sequence and opening scene under the two minute requirement.

We also had to edit the music in our film. We had to put the music in the right place, making sure it fit with the scenes behind it, we also had to alter the volume at certain points within it to insure you could here the dialogue in the film. We also had to get the first song; "Clear" to fade out and be replaced by the second song; "Loving everything I find" to fade in at this point.

First Day Filming

Our first filming day we encountered several unseen problems which meant we had to alter slightly some of our plans. One thing problem we'd forgot to think of was the time of our filming, although we filmed all scenes at home straight after school, due to it being winter it got dark very quickly so it didn't look very realistic as a morning, so we had to refilm the next day so it looked more realistic.
Another problem we encountered was with our actors. Due to unforeseen circumstances one of our actors was unable to take part in filming last minute so we quickly had to find a suitable replacement. In the end this worked in our favour as our replacement actor had more experience in acting so played the role more believably.

Risk Assesment

Before we begun to film our teen angst we had to do a risk assessment to insure nothing went wrong, we had to think of possible hazards, who it would affect and how to prevent these from happening.

• One possible risk was the cameras getting damaged, to avoid this we had to look where we were walking whilst holding them, making sure we weren't going to trip up and we were being aware of our surroundings and any possible trip hazards.
• Another risk of filming is the Camera and tripod falling over and breaking. To avoid this we made sure the legs of the tripod were closed whilst walking through doors, and no one was standing on tables, chairs or anything unstable where they could fall of and damage the equipment or hurt themselves.
•  The camera could also be damaged by falling off the tripod so before we begun to film each time we had to check it was connected properly to the tripod.
• Another hazard was when we were filming walking through the 6th form doors, it was very easy for the doors to swing back and hit one of the actors so we had to get people to hold them open the whole time, whilst staying out of the shot.
• One risk was the equipment getting lost so we made sure one member of the group was always responsible for an individual piece of equipment and they knew where the equipment was and when.
• A possible hazard we were aware of was tripping and falling down the stairs, and an actor injuring themselves. To prevent this we had to be very careful when walking down them and concentrate.
• When we were tracking it involved the cameraman walking backwards, this put him at risk of falling over or walking into something, to insure this didn't happen we had to have someone stood with him leading him backwards and making sure nothing was in his way.

Settings

The main setting for our teen angst was in Ernulf post 16 area. We chose to set our film here for several reasons. One reason was that it represents the age of the characters to be older teenagers and therefore makes it relatable to the target audience. Another reason is  by setting it in a school it meant we could show a variety of social issues that take place at school, such as; bullying, friendship/relationship problems, social groups and the stress of school work and the effect this has on the characters in our film. This also is relatable to our target audience who most likely are facing similar problems and dramas within their lives. We got this idea from Angus Thongs and perfect Snogging who also base their film in an average English school, instead of an exciting, big American school its small and boring, which is most likely to be more similar to the target audience and therefore they can find it more relatable.

We filmed part of our film in this corridor. We chose to do it here because you can see the lockers in the background and displays up on the wall. It looks like a stereotypical school corridor, and makes it relatable. We used this corridor with the view of the lockers because in our research we found this was quite common in teen angst films such as; High school musical. This worked well at portraying the stereotypical setting and made it look more realistic.

Regina's room



Caitlin's Room

Charlotte's room

Another main setting within our film is the sisters bedrooms.
Caitlin's bedroom is considerably larger than Charlottes. It has a large double bed and a dressing table. Whereas Charlottes is small and simple with single bed. We also made the rooms slightly messy; as this is a stereotype of teenagers and makes it more relatable to our audience. We used the difference in rooms to symbolise the contrast of different personalities between the two characters and show Caitlin is more popular and spoilt.
We got the idea for Caitlin's room from the films Clueless and Mean Girls. Both Cher's and Regina's rooms are big and luxurious, with double beds and big wardrobes. They represent them as having lots of money, we wanted Caitlin to have the same representation as she is portrayed to be spoilt.


Cady's room

Charlottes room however we got the idea from Mean Girls; Cady Herons room, her room is nice, but plain and simple, it appears quite childish. As we based Charlottes character partly on Cady we thought it was fitting for their rooms to represent them similarly.

Scripts

When writing our script we wanted to make sure we used up to date language, relatable to the teenage target audience. We used slang and words such as "Yo!" This is a word commonly used by cool teenagers and connotes that the character saying it is also cool and popular. We also decided to involve a voiceover in our script. Our original ideas for the voiceover were slightly changed and altered after filming as we had to get it to fit perfectly with the length of the filming.

Shot Lists

In our teen angst we tried to use a wide range of shots to make our film interesting. We watched other teen angst films and tried to use some similar shots. One idea we incorporated in our film was from Wild Child. We used similar mid-shots and angles when waking up. We also used a birds-eye angle which is used frequently in Wild Child, we thought this was an effective way of showing the character waking up and it worked well. We also used tracking in our film when the character Charlotte is walking down the corridor, tracking is also used in Angus, Thongs and Perfect snogging when she is running down the road. We decided to use this in our film because we thought it was effective and was also appropriate to be the image shown whilst my voiceover was happening.

Preliminary Task

This is our preliminary task. our task was to create a short film showing someone walking through a door, sitting down and having a short conversation. we did this to explore using different camera angles and editing techniques.

Planning- Mise-en-Scene-costumes

Costumes:

Character 1 is the character Charlotte. she is the 'less cool' sister and we use her costume to connote this. She wears jeans and a hoodie, and other such casual clothing to show she is not bothered with her appearance. When at home and in pyjamas, they also are plain and boring. the difference between her clothing and her sisters shows the contrast between the two characters. Charlotte doesn't care about her appearance. Whereas Caitlin gives the impression she is a stereotypical popular teenage girl. We got the idea to keep Charlotte character dressed plain and simple to connote her characters personality from the film Mean Girls, because Cady Heron also dresses similarly and in Clueless, the new girl, Tai also has no idea about fashion and this represents her as uncool and 'clueless.' We wanted the same connotation for Charlottes character. 

The character Caitlin wears a lot of make-up, a flowery and therefore stereotypical girly top. Tight jeans and stylish boots. When in pyjamas she wears an eye mask. we originally planned for this character to wear long pink, girly pyjamas but had to change this as we couldn't find any. She instead wore a branded Jack Wills t-shirt, showing she is fashionable and shorts. this is a stereotypical appearance for a popular teenage girl and would be relatable to many of the audience. We tried to show Caitlin as stereotypically popular by using her costume as iconography for her character. We got the ideas for Caitlin's costume through our research of other teen angsts. This particular idea came from Wild Child, more specifically the character Poppy Moore. Branded clothing and lots of expensive accessories, it connotes she is rich, spoilt and vain. This is the same connotation we hoped to achieve from the costume of Caitlin's character.


Character 3 is played by Sean he is the cool, popular guy that's friends with Caitlin. to represent this his costume was; black skinny jeans because they are considered fashionable and modern day stereotypical 'cool' teenagers wear them. He also wore a branded Adidas jacket. This shows he is fashionable, cool and higher class as it is expensive. His shoes are also well-known branded shoes. he wore Huaraches because they were popular at the time we filmed and represents his character as being up to date and cool.



Character 4 is the new kid, he is represented as very plain and doesn't really know what is cool. we originally wanted the character to wear a plain shirt to show the contrast between character 3 and plain jeans and shoes. We then changed it however to him wearing all black. We did this to show he doesn't stand out and is straight away considered a 'nobody.' We also decided he should wear a plain, unbranded school bag, this was to represent his age and show it is school based.
      

Planning-intial ideas for teen angst powerpoint

Our group made a powerpoint for all our original ideas involving characters, settings, USP, narrative and target audience. We then presented it to the class and asked for any initial feedback or ideas. We also asked for help with the title of our film. There were suggestions such as "Sisters and Misters" which sounds catchy and exciting. However we eventually decided against it as misters isn't a commonly used word within modern day language and we wanted our film to sound more up to date and relatable for the teenage audience. We also played the class a couple of music suggestions for our film and they helped us decide on the most suitable and fitting for our teen angst.

 

Company Logo

Our logo is called Future productions. We chose this because it connotes that although small and low budget we are an up and coming company. This is aimed to attract interest as people are more likely to watch our films if they think we are good and it’s going to be a popular movie. The font of our logo is big and bold to connote importance. The colours of the font are blue and gold. We chose blue because it connotes worldwide. It shows we aim to make our small company grow into a well-known, universal production company. We used gold as it connotes importance and expensive. It shows our company aim to grow and be successful. It also represents the high quality of our films. The main image in our logo is a silhouette of a superhero. We chose this as we wanted something to represent strong and powerful. This makes us stand out from other companies as we appear stronger and therefore better. We chose it to be a silhouette as it is simple and we are a low budget company.

Logo Analysis

Walt Disney logo:

This well-known logo is of the Disney castle. The castle appears magical and exciting for the target audience of small children. It connotes magic and suggests the movies they make are fairy tales and about princesses, magic and adventures. The fireworks behind the castle connote it is exciting and something to celebrate. This suggests that it is important and grand. It shows it is a big expensive company.

Summit logo:

The summit logo is a silhouette of what appears to be a mountain. This connotes that it is at the top, and as good as it gets. It suggests they are a highly thought of production company. The simple colours of black and white colours connote sophistication and appear classy.

MGM logo:

This logo has a lion as the main image. This connotes importance and power as the lion is considered an authorative, well respected animal. It is used to represent the quality that the production company has. It makes it appear impressive. This is supported by the gold text and surrounding colours. It contrasts with the black background and shows it is an expensive company, connoting its success.

Universal logo:

The universal logo is of the earth, this connotes it is a worldwide successful company. The gold font also connotes its success because it appears expensive and important. The font is also in capital letters, connoting its importance. The stars around the earth suggest it is star quality.

Planning mise-en-scene- Props

Props:               

We used different props within our film to connote various things such as age, social group and character personality. We used an eye mask when filming Bonny waking up. This represents her as vain and very caring about her appearance. It also suggests she is quite girly and connotes she is popular. 


We used an iPhone as a prop at the beginning of our film when the alarm goes off on it. This represents it is up to date and cool because iPhones are very popular with the teenage target audience. This means it is also relatable as many of the target audience will have alarms set on their iPhones
as well. it represents the modern day world our film is set in.      




 Sean's character; Kyle has a prop of a blue Nike bag. We used this because it is branded and considered cool and connotes he is popular and high class. It is also a school bag so is a representation of age as it shows they are still at school. The bag is also blue which is a stereotypical connotation of males so suggests he is masculine and cool. We got this idea whilst researching similar teen angsts and saw that many of them such as Wild Child and Clueles use branded clothing and accessories to attract and interest the teenage target audience.    

USP

Our USP was that our film as well as being relatable to the target audience, also covered family issues as well as social issues. This is effective as family issues is something many teenagers face and is becoming more common in modern day society; these include issues such as divorce between parents affecting the child negatively. We chose to do this because the majority of teen angst films focus more on social issues, for example in Mean Girls they focused on popularity as a main issue and in LOL they focused on relationship issues. and less on family issues, this gives our film a unique quality and would relate to a wider audience, therefore making our film more popular.

Grease Title Sequence Analysis

 

 

 0:00-0:05-
·         “Paramount pictures presents” appears on screen and bounces towards the audience then back down to make it stand out and connote its importance. It also fits with the music
·         School bell rings showing the representation of age being those still in school, and makes it relatable to the target audience of a teen angst, (teenagers.)
·         Fades into next scene
·         Background of a radio/alarm shows represents the characters within the film to be stereotypical teenagers who listen to loud music.
·         Animated background
·         Cartoon shaped font, white colour stands out.

 

0:26-0:28-
·         Title “Grease” flies on to screen from a tube of hair grease. This represents the title “Grease” as connoting the hair product, relating back to the target audience who stereotypically care about their appearance.
·         Title continues to move drawing attention to the title.

0:28-0:32-
·         Animated car appears behind title, making it stand out even more.
·         Names appear at the bottom, in a plain black font. Although the black font makes it stand out from the plain background, it seems quite dull and average compared to the previous titles, suggesting it may not be as important.

 

0:40-0:44
·         Camera zooms out from the mirror, connoting a teenager’s vanity.
·         Name of actor and character fades in.
·         The bold font and colours make it stand out.
·         The font being in red connotes importance.
·         The font is large and takes up half of the screen drawing attention to it.

 

1:12-1:15
·         Repeats pattern from the last title scene, zooming out from the mirror onto the names.
·         Font is bold and in yellow and orange, they stand out from the background.
·         This is repeated for the next two characters, keeping the pattern the same but the colour of the font changes to keep the audience interested.
·         Blue fond and background is a stereotypical connotation of males.

 

2:08-2:14
·         Title is displayed on a billboard after appearing from a cloud of smoke.
·         Takes up the whole screen signifying its importance.
·         Music continues to play throughout all of the shots. It’s upbeat and fast pace, making it seem exciting.
·         The camera zooms in on the names emphasising the importance.

 

2:16-2:21
·         Similar to the last shot of names on a billboard, connotes a similarity between the two groups of names.
·         Pink font and background is a stereotypical connotation of females.
·         Title appears as the car speeds past.
·         Camera zooms in to show importance.

 

 

2:34-2:37
·         The rest of titles appear on billboards around the city, appearing after the cars drive past it.
·         Animated, bold coloured and shaped backgrounds.
·         Font type and colours are bold and stand out.

 

Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging

Characters:

Georgia Nicolson:

Georgia is an average 14 year old girl. She is a stereotypical teenage character, who tries to change herself because she wants to be prettier, popular and is overall unhappy with herself. She writes a diary, where we find out she has a crush on the new boy Robbie. She also wants to know how to kiss, wants to be treated like an adult and has an enemy, “Wet Lindsey.”  She is portrayed as a self-obsessed, childish character but deep down a nice person, who’s just unhappy with herself. Georgia faces a lot of issues a teenager faces in everyday life, making it relatable to the younger audience.

Robbie

New boy at school, he straight away catches Georgia’s attention with his charming good looks and sweet personality. However at first he is dating “Wet Lindsey.” Even after they break up Georgia keeps embarrassing herself in front of him and although there is a spark between them they don’t end up together until the very end. He is a stereotypical character in a teen angst, being a sweet, good looking English male which all the girls want.

Wet Lindsey

Given the nickname “wet Lindsey” by Georgia and her group of friends, she is the popular, pretty girl that all the boys want. However she is the antagonist in the film and the school bully. She is stereotypically beautiful but fake and nasty. However at first only Georgia and the Ace gang see her for what she really is. She’s the girls that all the boys want and all the girls want to be. She is self-absorbed and believes she is above everyone.

 

The Ace Gang

Georgia’s group of friends are protagonists within the film. They are all very close and have similar interests, such as make up, boys and being cool. They are all average looking, stereotypical plain and ordinary teenagers. They do not stand out particularly but all wish to be popular. They all face stereotypical teenage problems such as wanting a boyfriend and arguments within their friendship groups. This is relatable to the target audience.

Settings

The beach

The film is set in a dull, boring seaside town, where nothing exciting tends to happen, this is relatable to the audience who probably live in a similar type of setting. It supports the idea that Georgias life is quite boring and average.

 

 

The school

A main setting within the film is the school, it is an average English school, which is relatable to the audience. It represents the age of the girls and their immaturity.

Mise-En-Scene

School uniform

The school uniform is a tartan knee length skirt, blazer and tie. The Ace gang, being represented as less cool wear their uniform correctly, whereas popular girl Lindsey alters hers to be tighter and more revealing.  The school uniform connotes they are still quite young and immature.

Make-up

Make-up and anything used to alter the girls appearance (such as tweezers to pluck their eyebrows) is a main form of Mise-En-Scene within the film. It is iconography of a teenage girl, as they stereotypically care about their appearance. When Georgie accidently shaves her eyebrow off this shows they are young and naïve, they are trying to act like they know what they’re doing because they want to be treated as adults. This connotes them as being immature and childish.

Lighting

The lighting used within the film is dull and low key. This represents the mood of the film and the average life of Georgie. However the lighting when her and Robbie finally get together is light because it represents the light-hearted mood and atmosphere. The lighting throughout connotes the everyday ups and downs of Georgias stereotypical teenage life.

Narrative

The film is about a 15 year old girl called Georgia, she lives with her mum, dad and younger sister. She wants to be treated like an adult and therefore despises the fact her parents treat her like a child. She goes to an average English school and has a group of friends who are all considered fairly uncool. The film shows everyday problems faced by Georgia, such as embarrassing herself in front of her crush Robbie, falling out with her best friends, and the fear of her parents getting divorced. The film ends with a moral ending to care less about what people think about you and be happy in yourself. In stereotypical teen angst ending Georgia ends up with Robbie, makes up with her friends and her dad comes home and her family begin to treat her like a grow up. Robbie chooses Georgia over Lindsey and everyone sees her for who she really is, meaning they have ‘defeated’ the antagonist.