In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The music in 'The Nerd Bully' really connects with the film in a way the music of Mr Bean & Catch Me if you can does. Me and my friend jack created an upbeat but soft melody for the comedy scenes, but a hard and strong bass beat for the violent parts. Both were created using the i-mac's at college, but we were limited to copyright free sources, and the default sounds that were provided. For the first soft melody, we decided we needed to make an instrumental that would keep the tempo up, but slow down proceedings until the fight scene, in which we then created a heavy drum instrumental, building the dramatic tension up for the viewer. We had positive reviews for the music, though me and my co worker jack decided that if we had more time, we would have possibly emailed a music company for permission to use their songs. Other than the music and the voice-over narration added, we didn't add in any foley sound, possibly due to the fact that there were no scenes in which any were needed, though looking back it may have made our production more professional.
Our editing process was very simple, as we wanted to gain the audiences attention from the second the film started, by quick pace editing and dissolving scenes to speed up the narrative, not usually seen in comedy's but we believe was necessary to make sense of the storyline. We had good feedback from this, by experimenting with techniques from different films, for example the shaving scene from the Mr Bean Movie is similar to the scene in our production, however we decided to dissolve the clips into each other. Due to the fast pace of the film, we needed to add a slow narration, to neutralise the playback of the film, which in all fairness works well in most peoples opinions. A clip inspired from the movie 'Kevin & Perry Go Large' is the scene in which Percy (Jack) opens the door for two girls, who in return call him a 'dirty virgin', a classic statement which was complementary to fit in with the film title. Thus far in the film, we decided we needed some high angle shots, only achieved by me standing high upon a table in the I.T as Jack walked in, as we believe a variety of shots gives a professional look to the editing. Looking back now though, we can both agree that the flickering of the computer screens is a huge dent in the final edit, as it gives a very amateur look, and one we could have avoided if we got the opinion of others. In the final fighting scene, inspired by how Peter Parker in 'Spiderman' transformed, we needed to edit so it seemed Jack was the dominant protagonist in the sequence. This was done by using the earthquake effect, which portrays the camera as controlled by Jacks Powers. We were happy with the feedback from this, though it was a split 50/50 on this looking cheesy or not.
The lighting was a huge problem in the filming and editing. Due to us filming on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the sun was a huge pain, as it gave different contrasts of high key and low key lighting, something which took a while to bleed as we had to get the clips the same colour for originality. The one clip which I believe is bad and not relevant to the adjusted colour on the edit, was the transition from the I.T room to outside to another classroom, as its very high key, and some say it doesn't make sense to the production; however me and Jack decided it was needed as the storyline and narration would not be clear without it. The flash effect used on the corridor and final scene is the best effect used, as (accidentally found by mistake) it adds a certain touch of professionalism whilst keeping the comedy and thriller genre closely together. Overall I'd say we connected and stayed close to both comedy and thriller genres, maybe pushing the boat out a little to far in some scenes, but from feedback received its been an excellent and huge success.
There were many changes in the final script of the film. The scene in which Jacks mother was to almost run him over proved a difficult task as she wasnt avaliable to film on days which me and jack had free, plus there was the health and safety regulations we hadnt considered. We also had to change our fighting scene, as the empathy and effectiveness of the first take didnt come through in the editing, so this made us redo our filming, which in turn made us redraft our script and storyboard.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
A noticeable feature to the film is that there is clear representable stereotype's seen. Percy, played by Jack is a typical nerd, whom is clearly low down in the hierarchy of reputation at his school. This itself identifies him as a stereotype, not to mention his mise-en-scene and his dialogue. Parallel to this is the stereotype of the school bully, noticeably similar to Brendon in this production. What me and Jack were trying to get across to the audience whilst filming, was not only a clear line between Good & Evil, but keeping it within the teenage genre groupings. People can relate to this video as any of the characters, whether that be a directly or remotely similar to Percy or Brendon.
What's clear in modern day school society is the stereotyping of nerds only being boys, which, after a lot of research into films and TV, became evident. Looking at the TV show 'The Inbetweeners', geeky boys are generally considered differently to geeky girls, as formal bullying is not considered strong in the female gender. In our production, we felt it was only right for girls to call Jack a 'Dirty Virgin', because morally a boy wouldn't say that, whereas its acceptable for a girl to.
To some extent, we believe this production may connect with people in a bad way, claiming it unfair to prejudice a geeky person as further down a school hierarchy, however I must point out, that with my comedy films about geeks/nerds, they almost certainly turn out better in the end as the protagonist, as seen by the end of the clip.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Our production is based on the fine line of genre in which it could represent a Hollywood blockbuster or a British based film. Researching the films I analysed, they have all been produced and distributed through the highest levels of worldwide media in America by Warner Brothers, which would probably best fit our film. Though it could be argued my film would be better distributed with a UK based film company, possibly Working Title or Film Four, as they specialise in main streaming new films. Comedy/Thriller based teen films are usually big hits, most likely being shown in the majority of the big multiplex cinemas, rather than small, private ran independent ones. Films like 'Superbad' & 'Youth in Revolt' are big hits in the cinema, but don't just stop their distribution at the big screen, as they're distribution continues through dvd sales, something I would want this film to achieve.
Discussing this with my co worker, we have justified that this film is mainstream Hollywood, as its not as British Bound or ran as it could be, but rather a quick cinema release then dvd sales to gain the most profit from a business point of view.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
After researching before my production, it is clear that our audience is mainly in the age category of 12-19 year olds, as they can relate to the film more than any other age group, as this is aimed at this generation of teenagers. Looking at the 3 films I analysed, its evident that they weren't just aimed at teenagers, but people of all ages, a problem I believe is faced with our production.
In some way we can take more advantages from it than disadvantages, as it aimed at the niche of teenagers who liked comedy/thriller based films, but with this there is a limited audience, meaning it would be very difficult but still possible to mainstream distribute this film. We also found out that there was a bigger ratio 3:1 on boys enjoying this to girls, which is plausible as the main characters relate to boys more than girls.
How did you attract/address your audience?
As stated, we aimed our production to teens by using male characters, which fellow males can relate to more than females, though this cannot be fully justified without further research. The narrative of the story interacts and address's the audience in the second tense, almost instructional and direct. Using close up camera shots of Percy (Jack), we can identify the mise-en-scene used to display the nerd theme, which adds to the realistic continuity attracting the beliefs of the audience. As of the end of the clip, the production could be seen as more interactive with girls, as the film 'Superbad' does in relation of geeks towards girls. With our mise-en-scene, we believe we've attracted many school and college students, as they can identify themselves in the environment of the film. This makes our feedback more attractive, with some examples: 'lmaoo! love it =D', 'funny stuff boys (Y)' & 'I love your stuff! xD'.
The feedback comments above are all from people in my age range, almost proving my hypothesis that this production targets the teen age range. We left the film clip on a bit of a cliffhanger, as audiences have no idea of what the narrative is, but we've attracted there attention for the first 2 minutes, thus bringing them into wanting to watch more, a clever ploy in filming.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Throughout the whole 50 days of this production, I have learnt a great deal of things about camera work, editing, and have extended my use of media language skills. Together, both me and Jack have learnt how to position the camera straight, how to deal with stray sunlight whilst filming, and also increased our editing knowledge, by creating a professional production. Extending our knowledge of camera shots allowed us to experiment different ways of filming, for example we had never used a tilt shot, but found that its a great to build up tension alongside appropriate music.
Editing proved to be a challenge at first, but got considerably easier over time, allowing us to experiment with different effects and transitions, which paid off whilst testing the flash transition, which now plays a major editing role in our production. We discovered tension can be made by slowing down the film, which is showed when I (playing Brendon) walks down the corridor to confront Jack (Percy).
Creating sound on the i-macs proved a new valuable skills towards our film, giving us the freedom to create the tension we both specifically wanted. We also learnt how to add the sound the correct places in the film, learning how to fade out and fade in dialogue and music. As our dialogue wasn't very loud, we learnt how to isolate and increase the volume, which in turn gave us even more freedom to experiment and devise methods of tension.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I believe me and my co worker jack have learnt and devised new ways of learning much more than we did at the beginning. During the preliminary task, it was difficult to take seriousness into hand, as mentally it isn't as important as the final production. This may be seen in the empathy of the acting, or the production effort of every team member. In the preliminary, we worked with more than 2, so it's difficult to take responsibility when there are more people to ensure do a fair and equal amount of work. During the filming process of the preliminary, any slight issues with mise-en-scene could be ignored, whereas with the final production it is vital to ensure that continuity, originality and many other issues stay within the norm of filming.
With the Final task, it was difficult to work in a pair, as there is more work, plus less people to help. This was definitely seen in the filming process, as it was either jack, or me filming at one time, which was difficult as scenes where we were both in frame could not be filmed proficiently, but could be in groups more than 2.
The biggest thing we learnt, was the root cause of most filming - sticking to the 180 degree rule. This was broken many times during the preliminary, though when discussing the synopsis of 'The Nerd Bully', we were adamant we would not brake this rule, in which at time can be difficult to stay on guard with.
Overall, me and jack have learnt an extreme amount of new things in the progression from the preliminary to the final finished product. We believe that this task, by no means was easy, due to the amount of work to consider and perform. The transition of beginner to certainly a proficient cameraman, producer and actor has greatly increased my media studies knowledge, in which I can go on in further tasks to use, and build on. The final edit of 'The Nerd Bully' can be seen on the video blog area.
