Props

Hoodie



Representing the group of teenagers we will have in our teen films is very important, their appearance will determine how the audience will perceive the characters. Hoodies are generally associated with gangs and criminals, which is why we will be using them for a prop.

Phone

 

We have chosen a phone to be used in our teen film, to portray the female character. An expensive phone will make the audience assume that she is wealthy. 

Downloading legal music

From todays lesson I have learnt that you cannot use music from any website if it has copyright on it unless you ask the artist for permission. The reason why artists put copyrights on there songs is so that other people cannot claim the song as there own. Another reason why is because music needs to be paid for and having the license on the song will ensure you that you get your money. However, even though songs have copyright on them, people still download them illegally. This is a disadvantage for the artist because they are losing out on money.

Although most of the music that are released have copyrights on them there are some songs that haven't got any at all. These songs can be used for any use, as long as the artist states that it has no copyrights or they allow you to use it. These songs can be found on various website, in lesson we visited a website called creative common, this website can be used to navigate to many different websites that have a large variety of music and sound effects. These sounds and music files can be downloaded by just a click of a button.

An advantage of the website is that you can listen to a preview of the sound before you download it so you can hear it.
However once you have downloaded the file you need to compress it so that the file can become smaller so you can easily import it into any software you want.

For are film we will either find music from sound cloud, creative commons or youtube because we think these websites are the most reliable. (We do know that not all songs from youtube aren't copyright free so will make sure that if we do use a song from there we it will be copyright free)


Here are screenshots of creative commons logo and website and the youtube and sound cloud website:

Storyboard for teen film

Concept behind creative commons

Downloading legal music

The homepage for legal music on creative commons displays a bunch of websites which can be used to download a variety of music, once you click on the hyperlink it will redirect you to the music website selected, where you can search for the music you desire. 

As you can see you have a wide choice of music to choose from, also before downloading the song you have the option to listen to the track beforehand.

A legal song is now being downloaded. 

The attack of the Blair Witch

The Blair Witch + Attack the Block

The reason we have chosen to merge the openings of these two films, is because it will create a very entertaining teen film which will be realistic to portray but will still allow us to be creative with our scenes. By including a group of youths we have a variety of characters and will be able to represent many stereotypes. The Blair Witch comes as a twist to the teen film and presents elements of horror. 

Travelling and Arriving

Travelling and arriving are key parts of the opening of many teen dramas, the characters first appearance is very important as it will decide how the audience will perceive the characters. I will analyse the opening scene of breakfast club and the mode of transport they arrive at the school in. 

A front display of the school is shown at the start of the intro, as well as the inside of the school. By establishing the location the audience are aware that the school will be the setting. The Intro gives us an insight into the characters background. The first student to arrive at the school is referred to as the 'the beauty' she parks up in an expensive BMW, this suggests that she is wealthy. In addition to this their smart clothing further emphasizes how rich they are. 

The second character that arrives at the school is considered as the nerd, his form of transport is a car but is considerably old and is certainly in bad condition. Mis en scene tells us that this family is not very wealthy because they cannot afford to buy a brand new car such as the BMW. The subject of conversation was education between him and his mum, this confirms his attitude towards education and emphasizing his nerd image. 

The third character drives up to the school in a four by four jeep. In the Breakfast Club, this character is refereed to as the jock. The jock's clothing helps us to identify him as the jock, because he is wearing a jersey and a sports jacket. A mid shot of the conversation shows them discussing football. 

The 'rebel' is captured in a long shot nearly getting ran over by a car, demonstrating his rudeness and how much he does not care about the consequences. However he is also the only character to travel to school walking, indicating that he could be very poor.

The last character to arrive is driven to school, as she exits the car her parents drive away instantly. She is considered as the 'loner' of the group. 




  

monologue

Idea for your own teen film.

The attack of the blair witch.

- A group of boys are hanging around, messing about on the streets.
- A girl comes out of the train station.
- She sees a group of teenage boys, they end up trying to chat her up, they get rejected and they go after her.
- The girl runs through side roads until she ends up in a forest.
- The group of boys follow her into the forest and end up catching up to her.
- They all hear something.
- End up working together to escape from the witch.

Comparison of The Breakfast Club original and remake.

The remake of the breakfast club which we created in lesson was overall a good attempt as there are some shots which were good remakes, e.g, the canteen scene, the empty hallways, and the last classroom scene as it was clear to see that it is from the breakfast club. Along with the successful shots of certain scenes, there were also some unsuccessful ones such as the entrance of the rebellious character. The car was too small to make it seem like the character was walking in front of it, however we feel that it did add an element of comedy to it.

The start of our remake was quite strong as the shots were strong and identifying what movie we were re-enacting is easy, however the entrance of each character wasn't as strong as the start. There was a lot of background noise so it is quite hard to hear what is being said.

Sound and sound effect lesson

In today's lesson I have learnt how to import sound files into Final Cut effectively. In today's lesson we were told that we need to add sound to a clip from a film. The clip included a school scene, a elevator scene and various other scenes that help the audience identify the different identity's of the characters. During the lesson me and my group used the creative commons website and the public drive to find sound effects and music that could be used to for clip.

For the school scene we found sound effect of people (crowd) speaking from the public drive. After this we then found sound effect of a elevator going up (we made this loop until the elevator stopped). After the elevator scene was the three other scenes of the three different characters. For the first character ('the black guy'), we used a gangster song because we thought it matched with the characters persona. For the second character ('the girl') we added a more calm, guitar instrumental because we thought it fit in with the clip as the girl seems lonely and the song reflects this.
For the last character ('the punk') we chose a more loud, lively song. Not only because it contrast with the last song but because again it fit in with the persons identity (slicked hair, rock posters).

All the songs that were used in the clips were downloaded from sound cloud, compressed, imported into Final Cut then trimmed to match the clip.

Research - Sound and Sound Effects

The elevator sound effect when the boy and girl are in the lift creates an awkward and quite funny effect, the crowd, walking and clothes sound effects are all to create a more realistic effect on the footage. then the three songs are stereotypical songs that fit with each characters personality.

Here are some screenshots from our editing process and how and where we chose our sound effects

Why is it important to use copyright free music?

Our task for the sound lesson is to find copyright free music/sounds on Soundcloud and download it to insert it into a short clip from the movie 'Higher Learning'.  

It is important for you to use copyright free sounds/music in your work as if you don't you may be sued because you are breaking a law. 

Copyright is important as it protects artists from losing ownership of their work, and it gives them the legal right of ownership over their work. 

By using copyright free music it means that the work in which we have produced cannot be taken or removed off websites such as youtube. 

Copyrighted work can be used if paid for but only for certain uses and sometimes it's only for a certain period of time. Film producers and music people sometimes buy the right to use well known songs in the movies that they create, but even then there are sometimes limitations on just how much they can do with the stuff and they need to give references to the creator of the piece. 

Breakfast club shot for shot remake

Binary Oppositions

Binary oppositions are a pair of related terms that are opposite to each other. They are set up in movies to present two different sides. E,g. good vs. evil. An example of binary opposition in a movie is Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort. Harry is portrayed to be the good character, while Voldemort is the bad.

Binary oppositions in movies are presented through miss en scene, sound, camera and editing.


Mise En Scene:
In Harry Potter the character of Harry is presented to be good through his actions. In all 8 movies Harry is seen to be becoming a stronger wizard so that he is able to protect everyone against Voldemort and the death eaters. The movie is mostly set in Hogwarts where the atmosphere is quiet dark at times which contrasts with the students that go there as they are there to learn how to fight against evil. Harry is always called when something goes bad and is cared for a lot by the teachers as it is clear that he is the chosen one who will be able to fight against evil. The evil character in Harry Potter is Lord Voldemort. It is clearly apparent that he is the evil one through the way he is dressed(in black), and he speaks in an evil tone.


Camera and Editing:
 The camerawork throughout all the movies when Harry and Voldemort fight against each other is close up on their faces. It shows the facial expressions on both characters. During the fights between the two characters you can clearly see the struggle and the smug look on Voldemort's face which shows that causing others pain makes him happy - the whole idea of him being evil. The setting is usually dark which shows that the 'dark side' is there. After the fights are over the atmosphere and setting goes brighter which implies that the 'good side' have won.

Editing

We have gathered screen grabs, showing stages of editing in final cut pro.

Representation

What is representation?

Representation is essentially the portrayal of something or someone within the media. In other words it is the process in which the media presents the real world to an audience, in order to help audiences make sense of it. Representations can be portrayed through many means such as social class, gender, age or even typical characteristics of an individual. However not every representation is specific, each representation may be perceived differently by audiences. 

Typical Stereotypes in Teen films



High School Musical 

Troy Bolton - The Jock 

Zac Efron from 'High School Musical' is well known for starring in the popular High school musical trilogy. Zac Efron's character is a presented as the stereotypical popular jock of the school, he is referred to as the best player on the team and is admired by many of his peers. Wearing jerseys, tracksuits and basketball trainers regularly is how he keeps up his jock image. 

Attack the Block

Moses- The Rebel  

Moses from Attack the Block is known as the troublemaker in his area, he has no fear of the law and this is shown at the start of the film when he ambushes and mugs an innocent woman. He appears to be wearing a hoodie and a cap to conceal his face, so he cannot be identified. Also Moses is very aggressive and violent in parts of the movie, which is typical of criminals because they tend to like being feared by people. Moses also conveys a bad attitude this can be very stereotypical of rebels, because they do not like to be disciplined or told what to do. 



The Breakfast Club 

Claire - The Beauty

Claire's character is portrayed as the popular girl amongst the other characters and the most attractive of the bunch. Although she is popular and attractive, her parents are very wealthy allowing her to dress in what she pleases and afford to be able to drive to school in a BMW. Wearing revealing and feminine clothing shows us she is concerned about her appearance and wants to look more attractive. 

Behind the scenes

Behind the scenes 

We have compiled a number of photos, giving you an insight into what happened behind the scenes.

Digital Storyboard - The breakfast club.

Planning

Props - 

The criminal: Black clothing, black shoes, and hat.

The athlete: Baseball jacket\ hoodies, trainers, and packed lunch.

The basket case: Black, long, baggy clothing, school bag and art book with drawings.

The princess: Pink clothing and hand bag.

The brain: Smart clothing, School and books.



Locations -

- Outside the college

- Canteen

- Classroom



Storyboard -