Evaluation Activity 2 - How does your media product represent a particular social group?

Freddie Prinze Jr is an actor who plays Zack Siler in She's all that. She's all that is a romantic film that has some similarities and differences to the film that I produced. The character Zack also has similarities and differences to the male character in my film. One similarity that they have is that they are both men that have to fight to get back the women they have lost due to them acting like a douche. Zack makes a bet that he can get any girl at school but ends up catching real feelings for the girl that gets chosen. After finding out about the bet she wants nothing to do with him. He then has to make an effort to get the girl back. That is similar to the husband in my film. In the full narrative to my film the husband loses his wife and child due to the fact that he his more interested in work and the other things going on in his life, not his family. Zack and the husband in my film are also similar as they are both very important. Zack is the most popular guy in high school. He is seen as an important guy as he is captain of the school football team and is the front runner for prom king. The husband in my film is important as he is high up in his job and is respected by all of his colleagues. Additionally, Zack and the husband in my film are similar as they both realise that the people that they thought were their friends are not and used them. The husband in my film realises this when he meets Homeless Jack. After getting no help from his 'friends' to help him in the situation. It's only when the husband in my film meets Homeless Jack that he realises that they were using him. This is much like Zack. Zack realises that the people he thought were his friends aren't his real friends when one of them tells the girl he likes about the bet, so that she wouldn't like Zack, and he could then take her to the prom as his date. Furthermore, neither of the female characters are interested in the male characters popularity. Laney is not interested in Zack's popularity at all and couldn't care less that he was the front runner for prom king. She just wants someone to like her for who she is. This is much like the female character in my film. She doesn't care that her husband goes to work and makes lots of money. None of that means anything to her as her husband is not there when her and her daughter need him the most. Lastly, both Zack and the husband in my film are similar as they are both willing to give up everything to get the girl that the love back. The husband in my film is willing to quit his job and make a completely new start with his wife. This is similar to Zack who after winning the title of prom king is willing to sacrifice this when he runs out and to Laney's house to get her back.

However, the husband in my films and Zack do have some differences. Zack only gets with the girl at first because it was a bet and not because he truly loves her. This is different from the husband in my film who aaas already with the wife but managed to ruin their relationship with his own mistakes. Another difference between Zack and the husband in my film is that there is another love interest for Zack, but my husband is only ever interested in the wife and no one else. Zack has love interest from his ex girlfriend Taylor. If he isn't morning over them breaking up, she is trying to win him back so they can go to prom together. This is in contrast to the husband to my film who has only ever had an interest in the wife. He just didn't have his priorities sorted so that he gave his family the time they deserve. As well as this Zack and the Husband in my film are different as Zack is in high school and the husband in my film is older. Zack being in high school means that the consequences of his actions aren't that serious. The most that is going to happen is that he will end up without either girl and then has to find a completely new girl, or try and win back Taylor or Laney. This is very different form the husband in my film. He has everything to loose when he is making the decision of what to do now. His jobs is in jeopardy as well as his relationships with his wife and daughter.

Evaluation Task 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real medis products? (i.e. of film openings)

Title of film
The title of the film is typical to romantic drama films. The title of the film relates directly to the main aspect of the whole film. It is similar to some of the films that I analysed in my research and planning. For example The Vow is the title of a film that is primarily about the vows made between a couple while they get married. Another example is Dear John. This is a film about the letters being sent between a soldier and his love. This therefore, makes the title of my film typical for a romantic drama. The title of my film is also typical as it appears over a shot of the setting. This is how the titles for most of the films I have analysed have been introduced.

Setting and Location
The location of my film is two different houses, one for my female character and one for the male character. I think this can be typical of a romantic drama film. It is typical because quite often romantic films start off with the main two characters, stereotypically one female one male much like the ones I have used, in separate houses thinking about their lives and/or getting ready to go to work or getting ready for something. Therefore the location I have chosen for the opening two minutes of my film is typical as I have chosen a house as the location for my two characters to get ready for their wedding.

Costumes and Props
The costume for my female character is not very typical. She is getting ready for her wedding and is sitting in her dress. However, her dress is not very typical. It doesn't strike the audience as a wedding dress, instead it is a slim fit elegant white dress with a black pattern on it. I prefer this dress to a typical wedding dress as I think it suits the actress in my film better. I also think it is a better representation of what a character that looks like my actress would actually wear to her wedding. This was important to me when think about costumes and props as I wanted to try and make my film as realistic as possible. Alternatively, I think the costume for the husband in my film is very typical. He is wearing smart black trousers, a plain white shirt and a black tie. This is an outfit that I very much associate with a man getting ready for a wedding, which is why I chose for him to wear this. I also hope that it will be easy for my audience to make the same connection. I didn't use many props for the male character. I only used a mirror, hairbrush and some hair gel. This is then contradicted with the props that I used for the female character. For the female character I used a dressing table, mascara, lip balm, jewellery and much more. I think this is typical as it represents different gender stereotypes. I think it shows the stereotype that men are quite minimal while getting ready, contrastingly to women who have lots to do and take a long time to get ready.

Title font and style
I think the font and style of the title of my film is both typical and non typical. It is typical as it is 'girly' just like the audience would expect from a film like mine. I think my title represents the romantic side to my film. However, I don't think it is typical as other films that I analysed that are the same genre as mine had used a font that was more straight and looked more strict. I think that kind of font portrays that something dramatic could happen in the film. My font is more fun and flowy, which represents the romantic element but not the drama element. I think this is good as it still leaves a little mystery for the audience and it also doesn't seem like every other romantic film already out there.

Story and how the opening sets it up
The story for the opening two minutes of my film is a husband and wife getting ready for their wedding. This is typical for a lot of romantic films as the characters are getting ready. This is how a lot of romantic films open and how the mood for the film is set. The opening sets this up in a typical way of them being in their separate houses. This is also seen quite often in romantic films.

How the characters are introduced
The female character is introduces when making herself a cup of tea. I think this is quite typical as in a lot of romantic films the character makes themselves a cup of tea or coffee or go to a coffee shop in a rush and get themselves a take away cup. The male character is introduced when he is doing his hair in the mirror. I don't think this is very typical as he is not in a rush and is making an effort to make sure he looks nice for his big day. This breaks the stereotype that men are late and always in a rush after waking up because they slept through their alarm, like in a lot of romantic films.

Final Film - Opening 2 minutes of 'Homeless Jack'

Turn off the annotations.

Diary Post - 12

I have collected most of the footage I am going to use in the opening two minutes of my film and have now started to edit it together using iMovie.

This is one of the opening shots of my film. When editing this shot I used the camera stability tool so that it made the shot even more steady than it was before. I also added the title to my film over this shot. I feel like this was the best place to put the name of my film in the opening two minutes.

In this shot I am trying to draw the audience in and trying to set the scene that the characters are getting ready for a wedding. I used the clip trimmer to cut the clip down so that the shots ran fluidly from one to another. Trimming the clip also meant that I could cut down the footage of the actress painting her nails so it wasn't really repetitive.

This is my opening shot after my production company title. While editing this part of my film I used the split clip tool.This allowed me to cut out any unwanted footage. At the end of this clip the camera drops and is no longer filming the shot that I wanted. However, using the split clip tool allowed me to cut that out so that the opening two minutes of my film would look more professional.

Diary Post - 11

This weekend I went to my sisters house to film my nephew. He is playing Homeless Jack in the opening two minutes of my film. I needed to film him getting ready to go to the wedding as well as looking confused for when the husband runs out of the house. I filmed him doing his hair ready for the wedding. I filmed this from lots of different angles including high and low. Additionally I filmed this as a reflection in the mirror. I might use more that one of these when I edit my film to show the use of different camera angles. I also filmed a close up shot of him squeezing hair gel into his hand. I thought this was a good opportunity to use a close up shot. As well as this I filmed him putting on a tie. This is where the film starts to feel more like they are getting ready for a wedding.

Practice Intertitles

These are the practice inter titles for my film. These inter titles include the opening that I am going to use in my actual film. This is the production companies name and logo. As well as this, I have used a font that i might possibly use in my opening two minutes and some of the possible types of texts/screen positioning. The order I have put these inter titles in is the same or similar to the order they will be in in the actual opening two minutes of my film. The order is the production company logo, the name of the film may go next or I might put it at the end of my opening two minutes, the name of the actors will come next. I will follow this when editing my final film.

Diary Post - 10

Today I had my friend Natalya come over to my house so I could start to film the part of the daughter in my film. It went well and I got the majority of it done. However, I am not very happy with the lighting but it may look different after I start to edit it. I needed to film her getting ready for the wedding. In order to get this across to the audience I filmed her painting her nails, doing her hair and spraying perfume. I made sure that everything in the frame was relevant filming her at a dressing table. I put props on the dressing table, such as: candles, jewellery, nail varnish and various other things.