Evaluation – ‘stevie’s wonders’ Alice Rudwick

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

The purpose of a film opening is to show action and initiate the relationship between the film and the audience as well as containing credits to key members of cast and crew.

Conventions of media products

Use, Develop, Challenge?

How your media product does that? Evidence

Linear Narrative

Develop I used a deceiving but linear narrative within my project to create intrigue and compliment my story. By using this technique I will immediate allude the audience into believing in Stevie’s fantasy only to realise (along with the character) that his reality is really very different. In this sense I think I used developed the forms and conventions of a film opening.

Introducing characters, protagonists and antagonists.

Use I used the conventions of film openings by introducing a protagonist and other characters that may influence the story. Within my opening sequence I wanted to introduce Stevie’s character, a quirky strange teenage boy and I also wanted to introduce his mother. However you do not get to see the mother's face, just her torso, voice and hands. This not only keeps the focus on his character but also emphasizes the importance of seeing the world through his eyes, showing the insignificance of her character to him. Although we can also see this through the dialogue, this is a much more subtle way of projecting their relationship. 

Titles Developed During the planning stages, I decided to create the cast and crew titles based on people that helped out in the project (actor – Steven Chambers, music composer – Matthew Jones) or people that When using the titler, on Final Cut Express, I wanted to incorporate the titles into the action, as a more subtle way of presenting the cast and crew. I was also keen to bring them into the piece in a way that the audience would find interesting (i.e. by having them appear as Steven walks up the stair case, or at the final title, spelt using food). The last director’s title especially was very important for me, as it was a direct influence from Jared Hess’ Napoleon Dynamite’s opening title sequence which uses food to spell out cast and crew members.

Music Use Generally, an opening title of a film would use music to accompany the action/drama as well as possible dialogue or scenes. Within my product I have used simple music to do just this, accompanying the action and setting the tone of the scene just like within the majority of an opening title sequence,.

Within the opening sequence, the two scenes, ‘The Basement’ and ‘The Dining Room’ are very different in both the four main areas (mise-en-scene, camera angles, sound and editing) and the representation. In the first scene, shot in the basement, I used dark lighting, eerie minor tones, fast paced editing and a range of close ups to create a dangerous and dreary setting. As the character in this scene is a teenage boy this immediately creates a negative representation.

However in the second scene, shot in the dining room there is a very strong contrast as I used cheery music, smooth and minimal editing and much brighter lighting. This will create more positive representation as the audience will realize that the teenage boy isn’t in fact dangerous but just adventurous.

The representation of male teenagers within my film opening is one that I think deals with a rather niche social group in modern society. For one thing, when originally planning this opening scene I was concerned about his character and the unusual situation being taken in a very negative way rather than a positive, and more sarcastic one. When gathering feedback from a focus group, I found that this was in fact an issue. Not only was the twist slightly confusing for some members of the focus group but they thought that the character Stevie seemed a little ‘insane’ for the most part.

Therefore to a certain extent I can understand how people may perceive his character as a negative representation of male teenagers, however whilst developing the character I never intended him to be ‘mad’ just ‘overly ambitious’ when it came to his hobbies; in this case his desire to find action and adventure in his life. I think that along with films like Napoleon Dynamite and 21 Jump Street, this was made with a humorous intention rather than a psychosocial type drama.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

For this film opening I have chosen Fox Searchlight Pictures as the distributor. Established in 1994, Fox Searchlight Pictures is an American film division of Fox Entertainment Group alongside the larger Fox Studio 20th Century Fox. It specializes in independent and British films, alongside ‘dramedy’ and horror as well as non-English-language films, and is variously involved with the production and/or distribution of these films. They have been responsible for distributing many influential and quirky films such as Juno, Gentlemen Broncos, Ruby Sparks etc. Their list of existing work is what persuaded me to choose that company as my distributor as they of the Southern Wild.

They usually choose films that are independent and have a relative quirk that would appeal to specific audiences. Therefore I would like this film would be more of an Art House film as apposed to mainstream multiplex cinema. However along with films that have been the predominant influences for this opening, when initially intended to be an independent feature may have changed due to popular demand especially with films like Juno, Napoleon Dynamite etc.

They are also responsible for distributing a variety of award winning feature films such as Slumdog Millionaire that won the Academy Award for Best Picture , as well as a further 7 academy awards. Other Fox Searchlight films receiving Best Picture nominations include The Full Monty, Sideways, Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, 127 Hours, The Tree of Life, The Descendants and Beasts.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The audience would be mainly under 25's, probably students rather than an older audience. However, with films like Napoleon Dynamite and 21 Jump Street (direct influences of this film opening) the audience can alter how the film is viewed, for example, in Napoleon Dynamite, Jared Hess' titular character is a geek or a nerd, and the perfect butt of harmless jokes when you see him portrayed on screen. But to an older more adult audience, Napoleon (Jon Heder) is a high school loner who lives in a drab, lifeless, rural Idaho culture: He's parentless, friendless and lacking in the most rudimentary social skills and not remotely humorous. Though when originally when planning my film, I wanted to include a comical relationship between a boy and his mother, which would provide humor to adults that may have children and can relate to his immature nature.

Another factor to that may attract a certain audience is the characters. When I began to plan, I wanted a predominately adult cast as I thought it would bring a greater sense of reality to the film opening and wouldn’t look so amateurish. However, because of the genre and plot, the main protagonist needs to be a teenage boy. This may also alter the audience slightly as a younger demographic may be attracted to the film because of the younger cast.

Who would be the audience for your media product? How did you attract/address your audience?

Through creating this film opening, as well as learning about the relevance of planning to any film or production, I have familiarised myself with Final Cut Express, an editing program for Macs. I have used this program before, along with Final Cut Pro so getting to grips with it was pretty simple however there were a few features I discovered such as the roll and slip tools. I also familiarised myself with the varying speed, duration, altering colour and sound levels, all tools that I have used before but just re-getting to grips with them was very useful.

I also used the music programme Garage Band. Although as a friend of mine created the majority of the music using an acoustic and electric guitar, for the beginning scene, I used this programme to create opening ominous tones. This didn’t require extensive knowledge about the programme however I just wanted to create music that would help set the mood. I ended up making my own mostly because the database of music in Garage Band didn’t have anything I was looking for, not anything subtle enough.

Also during the production stage, I used a Canon XA10E, equipment that I haven’t used before so I learnt through filming how to operate the camera and the RODE microphone also. I would I have leant about new technologies both in filming and post-production.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

During this project I have learnt that many different aspects from mise-en-scene, to character representation, to effect of different shots have to be considered when creating an opening scene. This is mostly because within the first scene and title sequence, the scene needs to be set, main protagonists or antagonists need to be introduced and the initial type of film should be introduced (e.g. the genre, independent or mainstream cinema etc.)

For example within this project, I discovered the importance of intriguing the audience during the first couple of minutes. It is because of this that I used a deceiving narrative to create intrigue and to make the audience want to continue watching.

I also used very contrasting scenes and settings (dreary basement to cheery suburban dining room) to add to the opposing personas this character, Stevie, wishes he had and what he actually had. As well as using the obvious contrast in setting I used voice over to create tension and demonstrate the protagonists thought process but also as a technique to break the tension and create humor within the audience as the contrast isn’t something you’d necessarily expect from the opening when first watching it.

Overall I have learnt that an opening title sequence requires a lot more that just titles stating key members of the cast and the crew. As previously said, within the first two or three minutes of the film above all else, the audience needs to be interested in either the characters or the possible storyline that may be developed as the film continues.