Media Studies (Film Opening) Evaluation

How does your product use or challenge conventions, and how does it represent social groups or issues?

Our team has chosen the genres of our film as 'Teen' and 'Christianity'. At first, we wanted to show and expose the main theme of our whole film, 'God', but after that, we thought that we should make our film very simple and not spoil the audience because it is not the full film but a film opening. It was really difficult for our team to change over and over again. But I've learned teamwork through this project.

I felt teenagers age was the most difficult age in one's life. Because they are teenagers, they start to think, plan, and make what they want and need. And I think teens are the last preparation age to be mature. So I reasoned that if we took on this topic, we could elicit sympathy from the audience. 

We tried to approach our intention with the common issues facing teenagers in high school. Which is, the trouble between the students at school. Of course, it is not a big problem in one's whole lifetime. But if you have had the experience of losing a friend, you will know how that hurts and is painful in your mind. So we aimed our audience in many different ways at the same problem in the teenage years.

There are a lot of people who are alone in a social group, for example, at school. We aimed for school life with the target student audiences. I expect many in the audience to sympathize with their loneliness with our character Grace, who is always alone at school. And as for Grace, at the last part of our film opening, while watching the scene in which Grace goes to Olivia, I want the audience to gain some confidence in themselves as Grace tries to adapt to a social group (making a friend). And I want my audience to try some difficult things out at such a young age.

Also, we wanted to show that very different types of people could be friends. Because, as we show in our film opening, we made Grace and Olivia friends who are very different types of people, introverts and extroverts. So in the actual social group, they can contribute themselves to other people with confidence, as Grace had tried very hard to talk to another person. 

 

How does your product engage audiences, and how would it be distributed as a real-media text?

We wanted to communicate with our audience very sympathetically. We aimed to pique the audience's interest in our actresses and teenagers. So they can sympathize with their lives and compare them to their own to live better. And also, our main film is about God. So we wanted to show God's love in many ways, which we couldn't show as our film opening but as the storyline of the whole film. Even some of the audience might notice God's plan between Olivia and Grace, two actresses. As to how God made them meet each other and the connection between the two in God's plan.

Our team wanted to bring curiosity about the title to the audience. Because the title "His Way" has no relation to our film's opening as a mere appearance, we anticipate that some Christian audiences will consider what it means. Because before they watch, or while they watch our film, they will see the leading God between Grace and Olivia. Their meeting and their connection were also about God's plan and God's way. Even Grace's name suggests she has a Christian background. Therefore, I want my audience to think about their lives, compare their lives with the characters, and improve. Also, our intention is to let them think about God, as the title says. And bring attraction to the actual film. I want my audience to live in God's way and know his love.

Also, we wanted to encourage the audience to become and live as themselves. Our first idea was to show and express the film as best as we could." Which means our film was great because it was made by our team as well as ourselves. We want to show the audience their lives through Grace and Olivia. Because some of the audience might have experienced the situation of meeting their friend and losing their friend (which will be shown in the actual film).

Furthermore, we were expected to distribute this project on social media, such as YouTube or other platforms. Even when I think our audience really likes our film, they can share it on their own social media as a post or story, and even the audience can share it through text messages, DMs, or messengers.

 

How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

Firstly, I have developed my imagination skills; this project took me deep into the deep part of my mind. And that brought up an idea that I had never thought about before: teens. "I am not a person who likes to share my life and my thoughts with others, but this time, I wanted to share my teenage life with others, make them a video, and keep it. I am not keeping this because I am part of this film. But I want to keep this for our memories, for helpful information, and to make sure this film is the motivation of my life. Which is what I and our team want the audience to think about.

Secondly, I have learned a lot about different techniques, like shot angles, lighting, and even writing a storyline. Last term, I had the experience of making a music video for which I didn't need to fully create my own storyline. But for this project, I have learned how to make the story flow. And when me and my teammates were sharing our ideas, I learned that I am not the only one who thinks right. And everyone has very different perspectives from different backgrounds. It was really difficult for our team to change over and over again and arrange various ideas in one film. But I've learned teamwork through this project.

Lastly, while filming the scene, I wasn't only acting but also confirming filming and giving feedback to the camera holder. It was good to try out different locations, different times, and different lighting. And taking some samples was very helpful with our filming. If I didn't try to make the sample at first, we wouldn't get a good outcome. But we were thankful we had plenty of time and could plan enough to try out pretty much everything. But it was a great experience that I could try and make them one by one, step by step, to the final outcome.

Also, when I was doing my last term's music video project, I didn't know filming takes a lot of time. Because last time I was filming alone, I was just filming with a tripod and trying it out a few times with the angle that I wanted. But this film opening was very difficult for me to film and check repeatedly. We had to try a lot of different angles, different lighting, and even retake the scene with some obstacles or people. But it was a worthy process for our final outcome to be a success.

My skills had been developed through this project. I didn't have many experiences with the team project or sharing thoughts. But for this project, I felt like I am a person who really likes to share my own opinions and thoughts with others. Also, if I were doing this project alone, I wouldn't have finished it or even tried to finish it. But when I was tired of my work and bringing in ideas, my teammates helped me a lot with almost everything. I am sure we had been working for God, and it worked for God.

 

How did you integrate technologies?

While researching the sound and the editing software that we were going to use. We have searched the internet pretty extensively. I have not used my laptop or different software other than YouTube or Email. But with this project, I have learned many different types of software and how we extract the sound and other details of the editing part. Also, our editor and I could not meet in person while editing, so it was difficult to communicate with each other on time. But even though it was very good to learn some editing skills and many different techniques,

It was difficult for me to talk about editing professionally. But I have watched a lot of YouTube editing technique videos, including lighting, transitions, and everything. So it was very interesting to learn new things through this project. 

Also, our team, at first, researched the most about the film openings that past A-level students have done. And that gave us some ideas to start, engage, and think about our aim and theme. We had different thoughts at first, individually. But watching past A-level productions helped us narrow some ideas down to what our team really wanted.

It was sad that we couldn't use the actual camera. The quality of the iPhone camera was very good and stable. But it was missing because we couldn't learn how to actually use the digital camera.

 

Details:

- Grace's personality: introverted, afraid to make a friend, has a huge shyness, doesn't talk first, has no friends. The background piano music of the film could show Grace's personality, which is very soft.

- In our whole film opening, the audience would not notice they would be separated in the future. But the audience should know they were connected from the first day of Olivia's arrival at Grace's school.

- Using two different fonts is to give the scenes a different atmosphere (the maximum font is 2). So for the title font, Ruguosier has a dynamic and energetic mood, unlike the next font, which is very simple and normal.

- We did not put many information that refers to our actual story line, unless this is only the film opening. But we are expecting and encourage other audience to imagine what will happen and how the story will flow.

- License of the background piano sound: "(c) Music Standard License Envato Audiojungle 4 October 2016 Indie film license v2.0"

 

For some intentions for our storyline:

Scenes 2–3: Grace is walking from the outside to the school corridor (scene 2 --> scene 3). To show the contrast between two scenes, scene 2 is more energetic and joyful, but otherwise, scene 3 is more likely to look alone and unstable, as shown by Grace's face expression, lighting, and the sound of the soft and slow music. Also, the lighting of scenes 2 and 3 is a little different because of the roof that is in the scene 3 location, which was very effective in changing the mood between scenes 2 and 3. 

Scene 3: Grace's eye movement and face expression show her unstable mind and uncomfortableness about the outside (school). Also, her slow walking pace and her unstable hand show her shyness and introverted personality.

Scene 4: Grace is placed in a market. She's alone, of course. And when a stranger bumps into her, she shows Grace's exaggerated surprise, which shows her personality. And also, when Grace turns back from the camera, she shows her hair tie. Which is the same hair tie from the beginning until the end. Also, the intention of tying her hair is to show she is not comfortable untying her hair, flipping her hair, or twisting her hair, and she doesn't have her pride when she ties her hair.

Scene 4 to Scene 5: In this scene, Olivia is shown on the screen, but not mainly. Many people would not consider Olivia's existence in this situation. But we put the crunch on Olivia's wrist. So we will bring the curiosity of the audience, which is, What is the crunchy on the strange girl? Does it contain any meaning?' or 'I have seen that crunchy on the last scene; what does it mean?

Scene 5: Olivia rushes to a room and changes her outfit from normal clothes to a school uniform. This shows Olivia is a new student, but she has already adapted to her new school, and she's not wasting time or hesitating to make other friends. Therefore, she changed her outfit to the school uniform, and she went out to make her new friends. And after that, Grace is Olivia's best friend. While Olivia is changing, Grace is sitting alone at the back. Using fade-in to show the slowness of the time. Also, this scene shows that this setting day in the film is the first school day for Olivia at Grace's school. Because people do not normally change their school uniform at school. And doesn't necessarily run to make new friends.

Scene 5: Also in this scene, while zooming in closer to Grace, it is showing her loneliness and her normal life at school, which usually involves being alone, studying alone, and spending her time alone.

Scene 6: While Grace is showing on the screen with a bored facial expression, checking her phone, and tired of studying, we put in the clock ticking sound to show how bored Grace was, and the clock ticking sound makes the scene hurry and slow. Even Grace did not button her shirt up. Which intends to show she is very busy with something (making new friends). And in the last part of scene 6, Grace finally leaves, which means she's tired of being bored, but she's finding some challenge and fun (Olivia). Olivia's feature won't be shown very well in this film's opening. But Olivia will be the turning point at which Grace's mind changes as she finds some fun and allows fun in her life, unlike her past life, which was very boring and lonely. In this scene, the characters personalities contrast very well between Grace and Olivia. 

Scenes 4, 5, 7, and 10: We have shown the crunchy on Olivia's wrist in scenes 4, 5, 7, and 10. For scenes 4–5, we did not show Olivia's face exactly. So we let the audience feel curious about the scene of Grace, which also shows the stranger's crunchy bracelet. Which means we are intentionally showing the connection between Grace and Olivia.

Scene 7: Is the scene in which Grace and Olivia officially meet each other. In the previous scenes, they had met before, but they couldn't notice each other's existence. But they were connected. But for now, this scene shows they were connected, and they have finally noticed each other's existence and become real friends.

Scenes 8, 9, and 10: For these scenes, I was searching for the over-the-shoulder shot technique because I wasn't able to film as a camera holder. So I needed to get the information and go to my friends and tell them how we were going to take the shot. So I remembered the 180-degree rule from our media class. So we have tried to use 180-degree rules to make the audience feel the dramatic impacts.

Scene 8: It shows Olivia's appearance in the MCU. Olivia looked straight at Grace, showing her confidence and eagerness to accept her as her friend.

Scene 9: It shows Grace's appearance in the MCU as well as scene 8. But Grace couldn't look Olivia straight. Because she is shy with no confidence. But it shows a little smile from Grace, which shows Grace likes Olivia as a new friend. Also, by moving her hands and arms, she shows her instability in front of the new person.

Scene 10: For scene 10, we wanted to show the audience the separation of Olivia and Grace. Because of our last plan (not included in this film), we were thinking of taking two shots of two characters. And make the camera pull in between two characters, and while pulling in, we were intended to make the separation between two characters, which will later show on the actual film. At first, we were planning to use the string piano sound to make the last scene more dramatic. But exclude the string sound but keeping soft piano sound was very simple but clean. 

 

It was a great honor and opportunity to work with the other media studies students and learn about media effects from them. I don't have many opportunities to use media techniques and what I have learned in media studies class. But it was a good opportunity to try out what I really like and what I want to communicate. And our great teamwork led to a great outcome. We couldn't edit, plan, or brainstorm together a few times. But even though we had a great time together through the media, we should integrate with others and rethink the social issues that are mostly happening in our age.