Evaluation 1-In what ways does your media project use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Frame 1- Camerawork&editing:
In our film we tried to use lots of camera shots to develop and challenge conventions of other teen angsts. In this frame we used a birds-eye shot of Caitlin waking up. This develops a convention because it is a common feature in many teen angst films, such as Wild Child. In wild child they use a Birdseye shot when she wakes up at the beginning of the film and when she is in bed reading in the dark. We chose this particular shot because we thought it would be effective to show the transition between her sleeping and waking up. It showed her waking up to the sound of her alarm and getting ready for school, this is relatable to our target audience, as they probably have an alarm to wake them up for school, and most also have this alarm on their iPhone, this shows it is modern. By using a birds eye shot right at the beginning of our film it instantly made it seem more interesting and eye catching, and draws the audience in.

Frame 2-How characters are introduced:
We introduced the two main characters with titles on the mirrors next to them, we did this to continue with the theme of them getting ready and the convention of caring about their personal image. We used the same font for the character titles as we did for "Starring..." However we did change the font colours. For Caitlin the colour was bright pink, this connotes her stereotypical girliness. Whilst Charlotte's was red, this was effective because it's quite a boring plain colour, but stands out to connote the importance. We got the idea of introducing our characters whilst they were getting ready from the film; Clueless. In Clueless the main character is introduced by getting ready by choosing outfits to wear and seeing if they match. This is similar to ours as both shows the girls getting ready and caring about their appearance, we portrayed this by our characters putting on their makeup. This is a stereotypical connotation of teenage girls in a teen angst and therefore follows conventions, making it more appealing and relatable for the target audience.
Frame 3-Setting&location:
In this shot we use a long shot to show the front of the sixth form doors. This is the main setting for our film, this supports teen angst conventions as it is stereotypical for them to be set in schools, for example; Mean Girls and Clueless are both set in schools, however we are challenging the convention by using a British school rather than one in America. We decided to challenge this particular convention because our target audience is British so would relate more to a stereotypical English school rather than an unfamiliar American one. By setting our film in a school it allowed us to explore many different issues such as; social groups, relationships and the everyday stress of school. This mean we could find opportunities to relate these issues to our target audience.

Frame 4-Title,font&style:
In this frame you can see one of our first titles. It is of the word "starring" and looks animated and cartoon. We are developing conventions of a teen angst by using this because it appears to look like something written in a diary, which is stereotypical for a teenage girl in a teen angst to have. We got
the idea of an animated font from the title sequence of Juno. They also have a cartoon style font, we liked it because it made it look like a story, we took this idea and adapted it using different colours and changing the font slightly, so it looked almost like a diary. We wanted the font to look as if it was in a diary because it is stereotypical for the main female character in a teen angst to have a diary, such as in Wild Child. It also make it appear girly and attracts the target audience. We used this particular font because we believed it would be effective and would stand out against the background of the red curtain, to show the importance. The colour of the title is grey, to match the title of our film, with a gold shadow, again to connote the importance. The ellipsis after also suggest there are more titles to come and keeps the audience engaged.

Frame 5-Genre and how the opening suggests it:
In this shot we can see Caitlin putting on her lipstick in front of the mirror. Our title sequence is
mainly based around the girls getting ready for school. This involves close-ups on make up, clothes and jewellery. This suggests the genre is teen angst because it is obvious they care about their appearance and the make up products are all iconography of a teenage girl in a stereotypical teen angst film. This supports the convention of the girls caring about their appearance, we saw this in Mean Girls where they're getting ready for their "Spring Fling" and in Wild Child when she cries over her shoes being ruined. These both show it is stereotypical for girls to care about their appearance, designer clothes and make-up. We thought it would be a effective convention to use in ours, so it is relatable to our target audience who most likely have the same interests. However we also challenge this convention with our other main character Charlotte. She is a countertype in the movie, and doesn't greatly care about her looks. In the title sequence we see her choosing a random, unstylish jumper and taking half the amount of time putting on make up compared to Caitlin. This means we can aim our target audience to a wider range of people as they may be able to relate to Charlottes character better.


Frame 6-Costumes&props:

In this frame it shows an iPhone alarm at the beginning of out title sequence rather than a
stereotypical alarm clock, this is because it is modern so shows are film is up to date and cool; it also makes it more relatable for the audience who are likely to have similar alarms on their phone. We also used costumes to show conventions of a teen angst. One scene in our film is of one of the main characters choosing between two outfits to wear. This supports conventions used in other teen angsts such as Wild Child because it shows they care about their appearance when poppy is choosing which shoes to take to England with her, or in Clueless where she doesn't want to kneel down and ruin her shoes and dress, even though she is being mugged. Caring about appearance is stereotypical of a teenage girl in a teen angst. This makes it relatable for our audience. The costume Caitlin is already wearing in this shot is her pyjamas, she is wearing pink shorts, which is stereotypically girly and a Jack Wills branded T-shirt. This shows she cares about her appearance even when asleep. We used numerous of costumes and props within our film for example an eye mask, which is iconography for a teenage girl, connoting she is vain and cares about looking nice. We challenged the convention of girls caring about their appearance however when Charlotte wears an uncool jumper she finds on the floor of her wardrobe and doesn't spend hours getting ready.


Frame 7-Story and how the opening sets it up:

In this frame Charlotte and Peter bump into each other and this cues the end of the title sequence and the start of the opening scene. They both come from opposite directions alone, this connotes their isolation and lack of friends. We then use cross cutting when they're talking, because we thought this was an effective way of still showing they're alone as they aren't on screen together. As they bump into each other the music changes into a, slower song where the lyrics are about love, this connotes there might be chemistry between the two characters. We also chose to use mid-shots in this scene because that way we could show the characters timid emotions and body language, also foreshadowing a stereotypical teen angst crush between the two characters. This supports the
convention that there is always a male crush in the film and a complicated relationship between the male and main protagonist before they end up together at the end of the film. We decided to use this convention because every teen angst we watched used it such as; Mean Girls, Wild Child,
Clueless and Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging.


Frame 8-The title of the film:
The title of our film is called Karma. We decided to  call our film this as it is commonly used saying within teenagers at the moment, so appears up to date and relatable. It also is an example of
foreshadowing of the plot in our film as after being mean and horrible to her sister; Caitlin ends up alone, which could be classed as Karma. For the font of our title we used a set font on Final Cut Pro. We decided on this font because it is bold and connotes the importance of the title. The main colour of our title is pink; although it has a grey glow, because we didn't want plain pink to appear boring or too childish. We also thought grey would be effective because it's considered quite a modern and popular colour at the moment so would appear up to date and cool with the young, fashionable target audience. We chose to use pink because it immediately suggests the target audience is female as pink is a stereotypical connotation for girls. This also suggests the genre of the film and attracts our target audience. The colours of our font develops stereotypical teen angst conventions because pink is a common colour to be used to represent the genre, for example in Mean girls, Clueless and Wild Child. By following this convention it would attract more of our target audience as they stereotypically like pink and it also connotes the genre of our film. However we also challenged conventions by using a sans-serif font rather than serif. A serif font is more stereotypical to a teen angst because it appears feminine and appeals to the target audience, however we wanted our font to stand out more and appear bold.


Frame 9-Special effects:
This shot shows students walking into sixth form in the morning, however it was quite a boring scene, so to keep it interesting we edited this scene of Final Cut Pro and sped it up to x4. This worked effectively because it connotes time passing and suggests it is just a normal, average school day. This fits with the convention of a teen angst being set in school, this is the same in films such as LOL and Mean Girls.