Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product represents a particular social group through Gender& Age. It represents teenagers growing up and leaving the childish ways, and experiencing the feeling of reality hitting them hard. In my opening sequence piece I have a female character as my main focus. The film starting with a female character in some ways creates a sense of vulnerability. In some films women are presented to be weak, passive rather than active. In my media product I presented the characters to be friendly, caring and fashionable. They are shown to be matured, independent, and respectful. The main character in the film is turning 18, this shows that that’s the age where leaving the childish ways behind is essential. As we see in the last scene sometimes girls can’t handle reality and rather than facing it head on, like some boys do, girls tend to breakdown. It follows on with chick flick movies such as; Mean girls and Clueless. They all use female characters to play the main character because they present them to be strong physically but shown to be very weak and vulnerable inside.

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The title of my two minute opening sequence is called “The Unwanted Wish”.  The title was inspired by a major event that happened on my 14^th birthday. On the morning of that day I made a wish, I got out of bed and everything from there went downhill. In the early afternoon of that same day I found myself in the middle of a huge water fight. I was soaked, and dripping with water from head to toe. It felt like a dream I couldn’t wake up from.

I got the opportunity to make my own short film; this made me think hard on what I would want this short film to be based on. I then decided to make the film similar to the event that happened on my 14^th birthday. My opening sequence piece falls under the category of the “Coming of Age” genre. My chosen genre is quite common as it engages my target audiences, which are mainly Teenagers. This is because my opening sequence piece is based on what goes on in the modern society and in teenage life now. Often teenagers make wishes for the future, but sometimes theses wishes don’t always come true and sometimes they can go terribly wrong and backfire.

I have had a lot of influences on teenage drama/coming of age films, examples of my influences are: twilight, fish tank, freaky Friday, 17 again, 13 going on 30, 16 wishes and finally 16 candles.

I had a laptop and a broken white candle as props for my opening sequence piece. I chose to use the laptop as one of my props because it shows how modernized the film is, and it also show how technology has changed from when they made films in the 1980’s till now. The broken white candle in the last scene of my film represents her confusion and how incomplete she is, this could have been the reason she made the wish.

I used Diegetic and non-Diegetic sounds in my opening piece.

Diegetic:

·         At the beginning of the film we can hear the character talking to her friend on Skype and als0 when she spoke to her brother, when he came to wish her happy birthday.

·         Footsteps, door opening, can be heard in the film

We know its Diegetic sound because it’s within the frame and within context

Non-Diegetic:

·         I used different background music to help create a foreshadowing of what’s going to happen in the next scene.

We know it’s a non-diegetic sound because it’s not happening within the frame or context.

I decided to make the costumes for my characters in my movie modern and in trend with the fashion sense going on in this generation. This is because it will appeal more to my target audience.

As my opening sequence is a “Coming of Age” drama I decided to use basic camera angles such as; close up, over the shoulder shot and a 360 shot. These shot were kept basic because if I made it too complicated my target audience wouldn’t be interested and they would lose focus in the film.

In making this opening sequence I achieved a lot. I learnt how to use different camera angles and how to incorporate them into different scenes of my movie.

Opening Sequence- "The Unwanted Wish"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5APhkojQlY

Love& Basketball Timeline

00:5: Background music

00:11:  New Line Cinema

00:14:  New Line Cinema, Time Warner Company

00:20: Title card; Love& basketball

00:30: First Quarter

00:33:  First Quarter, 1981

1:00:     You wish

1:02:   Nahh Ahh

1:04:  You can’t make that

1:06:  Watch me

1:09:  Laughter

1:11:  You guys are too easy

1:13:  Just wait till I be like Kareem!

1:15:  You want to be like Kareem?!

1:17:  All his big but do is stand by the basket

1:20:  Shoot, I’ll be blocking your stuff

1:22:  yeah right”

1:27:  Hey Q.... Thought only girls were moving in?

1:30:   That's what my Moms said.

1:35:  Hey

1:35:  Hey

1:37:  Can I play?

1: 40:  You nice?

1:41:  Yeah am nice

1:44:  Alright

1:45:  You and Kelvin against me and Jamal.

1:47:  Ah man, he is a girl!

1:50:  Girls can't play no ball!

1:55:  Ball better than you.

1:57:  (Quincy laughs derisively as Monica walks to the top of the

Driveway)

2:00:  (whispering) 

             What a dog.          

Coming of Age Genre

Childhood is a time where children learn about the world around them.   They see and experience many factors that influence their everyday lives, which help them grow stronger when they become adults. Coming-of-age film is a film genre which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the central character from youth to adulthood. Personal growth and change is an important characteristic of this genre, which relies on dialogue and emotional responses, rather than action packed scenes. The main character is typically female, around mid-teen and the story is often told in the form of a flash-back.  Coming of age movie  is a movie where the central plot revolves around a person suddenly facing a life changing experience, trial or tribulation. That person once was a naive or childish person, and now they are suddenly older and wiser because of the experience. They see life and their place in the universe for the first time, the story features at least one adolescent main character and follows his/her life experiences up to and sometimes through adulthood. It often emphasizes the lessons the character learned that contributed to his/her personal growth that is exhibited in the story.

All Coming of Age films share certain thematic similarities the most basic of which is their strong focus on stories of young people on the edge of maturity. There are other important themes that define coming of age including the death of a loved one, falling in love for the first time, and high school graduation. Good coming of age films frequently deal with controversial topics such as sexuality, loss of virginity, or leaving home for the first time but they are rarely exploitative. Rite of passage films are often sentimental and they usually appeal to the emotions, but the good ones never play on the prurient. Generally the adolescent characters are forced to make a decision, the outcome of which will have a significant and life shaping impact on their futures. 

The term coming of age is also used in reference to different media such as stories, songs, movies, etc. that have a young character or characters who, by the end of the story, have developed in some way, through the undertaking of responsibility, or by learning a lesson.
Here are some examples of "Coming of Age" films:

Bibliography:
http://www.theskykid.com/movies/coming-of-age-films-defenition/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coming_of_age

My Story Board

Camera Angles That Inspire Me.

Birds Eye View Camera Shot
I personally like this this Camera Angle because it makes me feel really small and vulnerable.I feel like this little person/creature in such a big place but yet I can still see everything. I get a Superior feeling every time I look at this camera angle shot because everyone looks so small and looking down on them whilst being up there makes me feel like am in control of everything going on below. An example of a film that has this scene would be the final shot in "Much Ado About Nothing".

Over The Shoulder Camera Shot
This camera angle is going to be in my sequence. This shot is seen when Monique's talking to her friends on the webcam and also when her brother comes into the room. Having an Over the shoulder shot in my film focuses the audience's attention on the one actor and seeing things from their point of view. This is a general shot that is sometimes always used in  Films when two people are having a conversation.

Underwater Camera Shots
Ever since I was a little girl I loved playing with anything that involves water, I loved swimming and playing in the rain. When I watch films I always get really excited when I see an Underwater scene. I love underwater scenes because everything in the sea is Natural and it feels like another world below us that is full of adventure waiting to be explored.
This camera shot won't be a part of my film due to lack of technology, and it would be irrelevant.  If, I had all the equipment I needed to make an underwater scene it would definitely be a significant scene in my film. An example of a film that has this scene would be "The Abis & Harry Potter part 4"