Directors Commentary of "Under the Influence"

This is the directors commentary, we did this as a way of explaining the different techniques, shots and mise en scene we used throughout our media production.

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

Our film challenges usual conventions of media production when it comes to classic genre narratives, our film doesn’t have a set genre as such, instead we like to think of our film as a combination of three classic favored genres; the romantic comedy, social realism and drama.
Our film is fairly conventional in its camera work we use a variety of different shots to display facial expression, costume and locations. We used mise en scene to display different sorts of stereotypes in our film.

Our film is like St Trinians in the way that it uses stereotypes to convey teenage girls its also like our film as these stereotypes are not support to coincide with each other as friends our film does this to contrast with the stereotypes making it comical just like St Trinians. Our film uses elliptical editing in our opening sequence it jumps from when they wake up to when they are getting ready and their journey to college, this is done as to not bore the audience. We found this editing technique was also used in popular teen programme skins in their opening sequence the same sort of concept is developed. Our film break usual editing convetions when we did our still image flashback scene we are yet to find a film of similar genre that has used this technique making our film original.

In this picture you can see that like in this film like our film they have used different stereotypes to show different social groups.














We looked at images from Google of different stereotypes this one being a ‘Gogh’ we tried to adapt the look into our own film by dark colours for clothes, make up and hair.












We looked at other stereotypes such as ‘Chav’ and tried to adapt this look in our film in our own adaptation .
















We tried to create an image of a young teenage girl, someone that everyone could relate to; we did this by showing modern clothes and make up









In the opening sequence of our film , we looked at music we could use for no diagetic purposes, to connote the personality of the characters and the genre of film, we had a number of current hits which we wanted to use which would fit with our genre and film brilliantly. However due to copyright issue we had to use an unsigned band, the song fitted the opening sequence really well, but we struggled with the ending so by tweaking the song we made the perfect ending to our film. Metromax; the band name; we chose a track called "Take It On The Chin". We felt that this song not only sounds good and seemed to match up to the pace of the film with certain shots perfectly matching to beat and pace of the shots taken. the rote as, we wanted to create the feel of a real life first two mintue opening to a fun, teenage film.To do this we needed intriguing, fast pace shots with a backing track to compliment this.Metromax, were also a good band to use as they are also from Manchester and have an upbeat, edgy sound to their tracks. This created a good atmosphere for the opening sequence to denote urban, Mancunian youth.

2.How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our film we represent different social groups in different ways we used 3 main stereotypes of teenage girls as to appeal to a wider audience so there is someone for everyone to relate to eg ‘Gogh, ‘Chav’ and girl with body eating disorders. In our film the representation of young woman could be seen as negative as they are shown to abuse drugs and alcohol in our film, however we did this not only for entertainment but also because it is quite common in today’s society. In some ways the representation of young women could also been seen as positive and they show independence and a strong relationship with their friends.

In our film we have used 3 white 17-year-old girls we have tried to portray them as working class- middle class we did this through the use of mise en scene, in the opening sequence of our film we don’t show too much location or setting as we felt it was more important to introduce the protagonists setting up storylines for later on in the film, however we show certain aspects of the house and regional area e.g. the hallway, the bedroom and the surrounding areas of the house. We feel that the way we set up the mise en scene in one of the characters bedrooms displayed a middle- class person for instance in the panning shot we used it shows the full size of the room which we feel is a quite fair size for a teenage girls room. The dark purple of the room could connote the characters gothic elements however purple is a colour that often connotates royalty and wealth therefore we feel this could suggest to the audience that this particular character is middle-class. Although we displayed her middle class qualities through the use of mise en scene of her room we tried to counter act some stereotypes of middle class people by the use of costume. In her costume she was shown to be gothic and shown slightly unsociable breaking stereotypes of middle class people we thought the clothes showed her repressed personality and detachment from her social class, we also tried to show how through the breaking of the stereotypes she had been marginalized from her social class therefore placing herself in other teenage stereotypes such as Goth.

Some negative views of teenage youths are that they abuse alcohol and congregate in local areas near to where they live we decided to conform to this particular stereotype; as we thought it gave our film a comical element. We showed this on the still images flashbacks of the three girls intoxicated on a street corner. We thought this helped gibe the three girls a more working class appeal. However although we do show age in some negative aspects in our film we try and counter act this by displaying positive sides to teenage life we do this at the end when we show the three girls walking into college we think this is a positive representation of aspiring teenage girls.

When researching particular stereotypes that were represented in particular teenage films and programmes we found that ethnicity was often a addressed representation in today post modernistic culture most programmes about ethnicity. A stereotype often associated with white middle class teenage girls is that they drink and abuse drugs a lot more than perhaps Black or Asian and Muslim teenage girls. We decided to also address this particular stereotype in our film as we thought it was an issue in inner city communities.

Overall we thought that representation of gender in current TV programmes such as 90210 and skins we fairly broad and tended to set up and break most stereotypes we tried to take this approach in our film by setting up 3 types of teenage girls and as the plot unroll slowly counteracting these stereotypes giving the characters more depth making them a less archetypial character and making them all real adding to the social realism element of our film and ephathise with and relate to.

3.What kind of media institution would distribute your media product and why?

Facebook is a popular social networking site used by the majority of teenagers therefore we would distribute advertisements onto Facebook as way of spreading word of mouth.

We would use billboard and posters in popular shopping areas in city centre’s for instance Trafford centre and Manchester arndale.

We would try and distribute our trailer onto well known freeview channels; as a way of reaching a much wider audience, we would put it on after popular show that would attract our target audience such as 90210, skins, shameless, misfits and popular reality shows such as keeping up with the kardashians. Another reason we would show this film at this time would be because it would be after the ‘watershed’ therefore we would be able to show a trailer of a more provocative nature further appealing our target audience.

When looking at today’s current distribution and production institution

s we looked at inde

pendent companies like Ealing studios.

Ealing studios are a company that not only makes their own fil ms but also independently distributes them in the UK. They successfully did this on a well-known film ca lled St Trinians; like our film St Trinians represents clichéd stereotypes to represent teenage girls.

We decided that the distribution for our film Ealing studios might be interested as our film is a similar genre, themes and ideas as a representation of teenage life. Therefore it would appeal to a similar target audience which they have already worked with.

In this picture you can see that like in our film they have used different stereotypes to show different social groups. We decided that the distribution for our film Ealing studios might be interested as our film is a similar genre, themes and ideas as a representation of teenage life. Therefore it would appeal to a similar target audience, which they have already worked with.

We thought another good independent film company which might be interested in our film would be working title, as they distribute a wide variety of films globally meaning that our film could be a big box office success.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Are audinces would be ,teenage girls over the age of 15.

we tried to appeal to a wide audience, which is why we did 3 different stereotypes so that there is someone for everyone to relate to.We asked a teanage girl of 16 , that we thought was a perfect example of are target audince. We asked her what kind of things she would be looking for in a film about teanage life and how we could make it realatble.

She said ‘ i love a film with abit of romance, I like how the film shows social issues which are easy to relate to like body issues, drunking problem and family issues, it makes the film easy to relate to. I like how the film has comical elements to it, like the flashback it made it more interesting to watch. Overall I really enjoyed the film it did everythin it could to appea to me.

We wanted to address a widest audience as possible so even though our target audience was girls we wanted to appeal to an larger and male audience therefore we used moderately attractive girls to try and a attract a male audience aswell.

We feel that the social realism element of our film should interest a older community to want to watch aswell out of interest and curiosity. It gives an insight into current teenage life portraying different social issues that adults, maybe parents would be curious about.

5. How did you attract/ address your audience?

As are target audience is girls over 15, we would use viral marketing as a way to interact with our target audience so by using social networking sites as a way of advertising we would have links to YouTube off Facebook to the trailer of the film. Each character would have an individual created page which fans could go on and comment on their wall as a character response; pictures of the film would be uploaded as if it was real life helping add to the social ealism element of our film.We would use billboards in the city centres near popular shopping precincts where it is clear that teenagers would go. We would also invest a lot of money into bus advertisement as most teenagers would be travelling by public transport and also as it is a moving vehicle it can reach a number of people.

Another way to interact with our target audience so by using social networking sites as a way of advertising we would have links to YouTube off Facebook to the trailer of the film. Each character would have an individual created page which fans could go on and comment on their wall as a character response; pictures of the film would be uploaded as if it was real life helping add to the social realism element of our film.

We would use billboards in the city centres near popular shopping precincts where it is clear that teenagers would go. We would also invest a lot of money into bus advertisement as most teenagers would be travelling by public transport and also as it is a moving vehicle it can reach a number of people.

In the film we grabbed the attention of the audience by using different editing and camerawork techniques for instance (picture) we used still images as a way of displaying flashbacks, this makes our opening sequence more visually exciting for our younger target audience.













We used a panning shot when entering the room in this shot we used a hand held camera and a hazy effect to make it seem that they are walking in drunk, this makes it have a comical element also makes it easier to relate to.

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

From costructiong this product, we have learnt how to successfully use final cut pro, at first we found this quite difficult to use, as it was real media software device. It took us a few weeks to get used to how to edit simple things, as we furthered our jourey of making our final product and discovered how we could use dissolves, fades and transitions, to our advantage and making our film look more professional. As you can see from the picture below in question 7 we successfully managed to upload and edit music onto out time tine using volume conrol and the cut button. The development of our learning from our camera skills we feel was not increased due to the fact we used low tech video cameras that made it so anybody could use. However we learnt new skills .

When using the tripod we learned how to do a successful pan steadily making the film look better quality.

Another new technology that we used was Google map we did this to plan our locations and decide where they could be. From when we first started we had to learn how to upload our planning and information on the film to our blog, this was a new experience for all member of our group, we found it quite hard how to upload images and text onto the blog and how to format it correctly, however towards the end we the got the hang of it and learnt something new and that we will take into account.

7. Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt from the progression from it to the full task?

Looking back on when we first started making our preliminary task to when we had finished our final project we can see that as a group we have developed our skills when it comes to final cut pro, at the start we found it hard to understand the difficult technical side to the editing. Although we still found it a challenge we have all learnt how to use final cut pro successfully and managed to use numerous techniques such as transition fades and dissolves.

When we first started thinking about what sort of genre we wanted to adapt for our opening sequence of our film. We wanted to do something quite original but yet at the same time something that could appeal to a mass audience. We looked a current popular teen programmes for some insight, a lot of the most current ones we social realism genres where the characters help address current issues in society today.

We looked in detail at how the social realism theme and how it was created, we observed mise- en -scene and how it was a productive way of connoting characters personalities, background, religion and class. When creating our opening scene of our film we decided for our chosen genre; teen social realism, it was important to adapt the detailed mise en scene features that we had observed in other teen dramas.

We wanted to make it clear to our audience the characters we were trying to portray. We looked at stereotypes of teenage girls in the media today. We saw that the top main stereotypes ‘the girly chav’, ‘the Goth’ and ‘the repressed best friend’ character. We decided that the best way to express these three individual characters was through costume therefore we researched using Google images the types of outfits these stereotypes would wear.

When adapting the Goth character we dressed her in clothes that we thought connoted her gothic personality.

When creating her daytime outfit, we decided she should have long black hair- black being a dark sinister colour; it’s also a cliché that a Goth would have black hair. She had a long sleeved black top on with rips in it, another classic Goth appearance, she also had black converse; converse being a brand stereotypically used by punk/Goth people.

In the picture to the right we see the night time outfit, in this she wear a black netted/laced dressed another cliché of classic gothic clothing. The two outfits combined help connote her stereotype.

The other stereotype is ‘A chav’. When researching the ‘Chav’ look we saw a lot of revealing clothes and a lot of sparkly items that clashed with one another. Therefore in we chose to use a mini denim skirt with over the knee boots, as we believed that this outfit would seem somewhat tacky in the media today. We used a pink top to connote her girly nature; we used clichés like gold hoop earrings to add a comedic value to our film. We looked at other stereotypes of ‘a chav’ like hairstyles; the tied back bobble look was one that occurred quite frequently in our research.

In her night time we used, the classic over sequined look

to try and express a sense of tackiness to the character; a stereotype of ‘Chav’s’. We also took into consideration the stereotype of clashing colour so we added an orange flower fascinator

to her hair, this clashed with the vibrant pink dress she was wearing.

When it came to the other character we tried to establish the classic best friend stereotype. We researched this archetype by looking at current teenage films where there is a best friend role we noted that she didn’t wear exuberant costume to take the main attraction away from the main characters in our case the more noticeable people ‘Goth’ and ‘chav’.

In the film she is wearing current fashion however the colour arebasic and not much attention is focused on her outfit. In the picture to the right she wears similar outfits to her day time outfit to demonstrate her repressed and slightly dull personality, contrasting with the other twos bold, over the top and expressive outfits that represent their ppersonality.







We chose to use these classic stereotypes in our film for many reasons, the first being we thought it would appeal to a wide audience as we someone for everyone to relate to. We also thought that as our film developed we could break these stereotypes by showing that although they are clearly different in style and personality they are all still close friends. The other reason we did this is that we thought this added a comical element to our film as something that coincides with a social realism genre. We thought it was quirky as it mocked the Medias prejudgments and generalisations in today society

Title Analysis

“ACA Productions”
The first title that appears in our sequence is our fictional company name, “ACA Productions”; we came up with this name simply by using the three first initials of our group members: A = Amy, C = Chloe and A = Ashleigh. Although the way we came up with the name was simple, the effect was professional. This is due to the phonaesthetic company names of the television and film industry for example; BBC. [Pictured above] By using initials it gives a clean, established sound to the production name. Furthermore, in the media, block capitals and bold fonts are often used to illustrate power, establishment and sophistication. To create professionalism and sophistication, italics and other “fancy” fontal styles are also effective. [An example of this is projected by the designer Gucci, above.]
“Under the Influence”
We came up with several film names before deciding the final name. Examples such as “Fluorescent Adolescents”, the inspiration for this came from a song by the Arctic Monkeys, a young, northern UK band whose song title describes young people with a bright flare for life. We thought this was a catchy sounding title but may be a little cheesy and would not appeal to the chosen audience in the right way.
Also “Juvenile” was another name we came up with, literally meaning; ‘Not fully grown up nor developed’. This one-word title looked and sounding pleasing due to other effective film names that consist of only one word. For example, “Gladiator”, it sounds powerful and also catchy. However we thought that “Juvenile”, did not totally illustrate the effect of the sequence.
We wanted the title name to reveal: who should be watching the film, what it would consist of, and how the characters in the film behave. We then started to brainstorm things that affect the modern, young person. Our brainstorm revealed: peer pressure, influencing, fights, stereotypes, change, sex, drugs, music, drink, etc...
Therefore, we thought of what ideas of events we had for our sequence which mainly focused on drunken nights out and differential teenage stereotypes. Finally we came up with the name “Under the Influence”. We were instantly happy with the look and sound of this title as it fully connoted the intended sense and feel of the sequence. We felt it sounded catchy enough for a younger audience and was enough to create a statement about what the sequence would show. “Under the Influence” represents the majority of aspects in stereotypical UK teenage life. Such as, being ‘under the influence’ of drugs, drink, peers and of the opposite sex. All these things prove tempting for a modern teenager and so we hoped that the phonaesthetics of ‘under the influence’ would also coax the teenage audience to watch the film we produced.
We then come to think of character names. We decided to create ‘typical’ names for each stereotype. First of all the “best friend” character played by Chloe Corbett had to have a relatively ordinary name, this makes the character easy for an audience to relate to as she appeals to a wider audience – much like when film producers use the surname Brown, Jones or Smith to appeal to a wide audience, this is because they are popular surnames. Therefore Chloe’s character was names “Emma”. Secondly, we came up with the “chav” name, played by Amy Darby, we wanted a name that sounded working class and that could be said in a ‘common voice’, Charlene was decided for this character. Then we thought that we should be controversial with the “Goth” name as it was decided that the character, played by Ashleigh O’Connor, would have rebelled against her Christian name her parents gave her. So, we had to come up with a ‘sweet’ sounding name that someone could rebel against and become a gothic, rebellious, dark character. Lucy-Mae was decided upon this role.
“Font & Colour”
After deciding the film title we had to decide on a font to show it in. We did not want to show it in italics although in the media this is shown to establish sophistication, as we thought italics would not appeal nor compliment the content of our film. We wanted to show that teenagers go through some ‘wear and tear’ but also want to be noticed as valuable to the general public. Taking this into consideration we searched for a bold font with noticeable ‘cracked’ effects. We published this into the sequence using block capitals and put it onto a black background with purple font. This was to connote a gothic feel and compliment the shots that would follow the titles. As the opening shots are of the three characters in the ‘Goth’s’ bedroom we used a colour scheme in the titles to match this and the mise-en-scene of the bedroom.

Under the influence is a film set in Manchester in 2011. It follows the life of three teenage girls: Lucy-Mae (Ashleigh O'Connor), Charlene (Amy Darby), and Emma (Chloe Corbett).

Lucy-Mae the issued girl, she tries to push against her families over protective nature and closeted views of life, she has personal issues with her mother and father who are strongly religious and although they are unhappily married refuse to separate resulting in conflict in the home creating an unstable environment for Lucy-Mae. This results in Lucy-Mae’s aggressive and reserved personality, she finds it hard to connect with people and only has her two best childhood friends to confide in. She commits to a ‘Goth’ lifestyle to hide her personal insecurities.

Charlene seems like the overly confident, bubbly character when in fact she uses drugs and alcohol to hide her insecurities of an abusive childhood; she is a popular and well like character however finds her true self as a defense mechanism. She has grown up with both Lucy-Mae and Emma and has built a strong relationship with them, however in the film we see a rift form between Lucy-Mae and Charlene as a result of boyfriend issues.

Emma is the kind, well brought up one who keeps the group together, her caring personality helps both of them through their tough times. Although she has her own issues consisting of her eating disorder.

The film looks at teen life in a post modernistic socially realistic portrayal and helps relate to certain audiences as it looks at everyday issues that teenagers have with their selves and others. It watches the three girls over a year period, it sees how they split up and are reunited and resolve their issues with one another. The display of alcohol and drug abuse as away of avoiding a conflict its something many teenagers can relate to.

The photos of three friends together, is a similar concept of what we were aiming for. As it entices the audience because relationships and friendships are something that everyone can relate to.
The Skins photos also show this but in a more realistic way

The photos of the 90210 cast are brightly coloured and the cast wear glamorous costume as take part in traditionally upper class hobbies such as tennis. Whereas the Skins cast are naturalistic is the way they dress, look and the lighting they are filmed with. This denotes realism with social issues and shows how the typical t21st century teenagers are.

Monday 28th March

We had many technical difficulties due to the college network for our editing suite computer. Therefore we were unable to continue with editing.

However Amy and Chloe were able to convert all files so that we could use it in Final Cut Pro.

Wednesday 23rd March

We stayed in college and Amy continued editing the photographs into size. Then Chloe and Ashleigh took over to edit the film clips and saved all the clips we will be using in the main task to a suitable, tidy folder.
Amy then typed up and planned the recent diary entries that were missing over the past couple of weeks from the blog.

Monday 21st March

We met in college for 9am. Amy edited the photographs - with help in opinion with length by Chloe and Ashliegh - we had taken the day before on Sunday 20th.
Later, we decided to film the ending of the main task which would be the 3 characters walking through the college gates and the camera panning up towards the sky.
For this we had the familiar difficulty of having no one to film. Luckily, being on the college premises and filming in college we were able to cast a double of Chloe so that Chloe could do the filming.
With the camera positioned on the main road infront of college, busy traffic was an interupting problem. We had to film the upward panning seperately so that no traffic, for example; tall lorries, would get in the way.

Sunday 20th March

Amy thought of an effective insert sequence to have for the 'flashbacks'.
As a flashback is a memory, and photographs capture memories. We decided to use a professional photography camera to take snap shots to show the characters stumbling home from a crazy night out.
To do this with full effect of the night time we thought it would be best to do it in darkness outside instead of editing the film with a dark filter.
Therefore, we met up on Sunday evening at Ashlieghs house. Amy borrowed the camera and tripod from a family friend. We also had difficulty shooting out original idea of all three characters being in the shots as there is only 3 of us in the group and there would be no one to take the photos again. We overcame this by using only 2 characters in one shot and then Chloe on her own in the others. This will work with the film and fit in where it needs to be inserted.
Another problem was the SD Memory card. It was a very small memory of only 238mb. This meant we were limited to the amount of shots we could take. However we cut it all down, and it was successful.

Wednesday 16th March

We all met at college at 9am.
We looked through all the footage we had filmed previously and then decided that the shots didnt look as good as they could have.
We want the best effect possible and so got the metrolink to Ashlieghs house once more to re-film what we had already filmed on Monday 14th. Then we were happy with everything.

Monday 14th March

We all met up at Ashleighs house to film the bedroom scenes for the first part of the opening sequence. We decided to film these scenes again in Ashleighs bedroom as in Amys' bedroom, the lighting wasnt right for what we had all pictured and Ashlieghs room suited the desired mise-en-scene more than Amys or Chloes bedrooms.
We also faced a few difficulties with the filming. Due to filming during college hours there wasnt anyone we could use to play any of the characters apart from outselves. We wanted to do a panning shot across from Chloe to Amys face when asleep in bed. However to include all three characters in the same shot prooved impossible as there would not be anyone to film the sequence. Finally, we chose to have Amy film chloe's pan shot over to Ashlieghs face and then pause filming and then Chloe would carry on filming to get Amy in the panning shot.
This was successful.

9th Feb, 2011

We decided not to continue filming the main task as we realized that we should upload posts onto our blog, as not to fall behind on our diary entries.

We also continued to observe and discuss the opening sequence of our main task so far.

We are unable to upload the still images of our animated storyboard due to technical difficulties with a pen drive. However, we are still trying.

7th March 2011

We started our filming for the main task , we decided to film in Amy's house as the mise-en-scene of the room fitted one of the stereoptypes 'girly girl' and also fitted teenage style, we completed numeous shots apart from the flashback, bus and college scenes.

We had casting difficulties as we could not use any teenagers as they were in college so could not have the 5 stereotypes we initially wanted, therefore we used ourselves which was challenging however we overcame these difficulties.

2nd March 2011

Chloe and Ashleigh completed kidulthood final analysis of the opening sequence of the film.

Amy produced blog spot diaries for each day so far of the production. She also produced a to do list and photographed the animated storyboard.

28th February 2011

Amy completed a detailed shot list for our main task, which was uploaded onto the blog.

Chloe researched still images from 90210, skins and kidulthood, which would help to plan character mise-en-scene etc. for our main task.

Ashleigh observed the film kidulthood and watched how social realism was created while producing short hand. Which she then attempted to upload on our blog but unable to do so, with technical difficulty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shsBkmx5oQY

21st-27th February (half term) 2011

Completed a detailed story board with description with a total of 27 shots.

16th February 2011

We started to look at different genres to base our main task on. We decided to base our film on realistic teen dramas. We chose to analyze two contrasting dramas, we chose 90210 and skins, this is because they are both based on stereotypical teen life; however 90210 based in Hollywood with rich teens that live the high life compared to the realist teenagers in skins. Skins is very realistic in the way its filmed and also the main characters.

14th Feb, 2011

After editing our film, we uploaded our completed preliminary task and started to answer a detailed analysis of our preliminary task.

Locations.

Winstanley Road, Sale, Manchester.

This location is just around the corner from Ashleigh's house.
We achieved a successful still image sequence fro this location, of the three female characters stumbling home from a night out drinking.
Due to the wide fork road, there was plenty of room to move around and play with camera angles and to achieve a shot-reverse-shot.
Furthermore, the close overhanging streetlamp created an amber tone over the shots and helped to create the feeling of night time, even with a bright flash on the camera.

Locations.

Ashleigh's House.
31 Broad Road, Sale, Manchester.

We then decided to film at Ashleigh's house for the opening bedroom shots for the sequence. this was due to lighting issues in Amy's house but mainly because the mise-en-scene, for example the dark purple and black colour scheme of Ashleigh's bedroom; suited the Gothic stereo type much more as we were struggling for Amy's bedroom to compliment any of the 3 stereotypes we had come up with.
Also we were able to achieve better wide shots of the characters, due to the different layout of Ashleigh's room. We were then able to create a flowing panning shot of the characters whereas in Amy's bedroom. This proved difficult to create.
Furthermore, as Amy's and Ashleigh's houses are located in very similar areas, the mise-en-scene and feel for the urban lifestyle wasn't lost.