Morgan Foundation Portfolio Evaluation

Media evaluation In what ways does, “the youth” challenge forms and conventions of media products?

Before we began our film we looked at several existing films for inspiration for both plot and cinematic techniques, which we could call upon to create a film of the same genre when began to film our own piece. One film we looked at was Eden Lake, it’s about a couple who take a trip to a remote place in the middle of nowhere and find themselves being terrorised by a group of teenagers. We liked the style of this film and we wanted to create something with the similar style of, slow build, ‘quiet before the storm’ shots used so effectively in Eden Lake.

Above you can see two examples of how we attempted to echo the afore-mentioned style.

However instead of leaving the audience entirely comfortable with the opening shots we used a gamma altering light effect twinned with atmospheric noise to create an all-together more unsettling beginning. Another film we looked at was ‘the Blair Witch Project’ we took inspiration for one shot in particular from it, which was the shaky running camera shot of Alex. >

How does ‘the youth’ represent particular social groups?

In ‘the youth’ two different social groups of teenagers are clearly portrayed.

On the one hand we have the group of friends, an average group of teenagers, this is shown through the way in which they dress and behave, also through their accents. < In this screen grab of two of the friends we see that they are plainly dressed and that they are non-confrontational. This is shown through their placing in the frame as they are close together neutrally strolling.

< In this screen grab we see one of the youth he is dressed very differently to the other group of teenagers. His clothes conceal his face and his body language highly confrontational. This contrasts completely with the social grouping of the other group of teenagers, the friends, separating them nicely and allowing the audience to distinguish the two groupings early on.

This shot shows the separation very > clearly between the two opposing groups.

The youth are close in frame and together, their closeness in the frame shows their power over the group of friends who are in a vulnerable position in the distance. Here you can also see the difference in the mice-en-scene of their clothing. And in the two screen grabs below.

What kind of media institution might distribute ‘the youth’?

Out of all the media institutions we have studied such as the British indie-flick producing Handmade Films and the blockbusting rom-com producing Working Title Films I think that the ideal production company for ‘the Youth’ would be FilmFour. FilmFour have produced similar films to ours in the past such as the recent release ‘Donkey Punch’ which is a film about young people killing each other, therefore they would not have any trouble about the subject matter. They also encourage new British talent, demonstrated in films such as ‘This is England’ which has become some what of a cult success since the successful promotion efforts of FilmFour. This is why they would be perfect to produce our film as we are a first time film making team looking for a trusted film production company interested in quality and one that can provide a tried and tested channel for promotion across the internet and cinema alike. One example of their effective promotion techniques is again ‘This is England’ where they utilised Myspace and Youtube with great success elevating the films status from an unknown to a cult hit.

What would be the audience for ‘the youth’ and how did you address them?

We tailored our film so that it was aimed at a young audience, most thrillers tend to do this as it’s a genre that is primarily viewed by younger people. This is because they tend to make the majority of the audience who want something visually thrilling rather than watching something with a deep meaning, or a lot of dialogue.

The film is about teenagers, this was a conscious decision because it means that the majority of audience can relate to the characters, and therefore become more emotionally connected and then ultimately more interested in the film. It isn’t a particularly deep and meaningful film either, it is merely a visually engaging and enjoyable to watch What have you learnt about technologies from the making of this film?

Before I began filming ‘the youth’ I had very little understanding of how to edit or film a film but now I feel very confident in using both Final Cut Express and operating the camera as well as using other programs on the Mac to create the film, such as Livetype. I feel that learning to use the cameras was somewhat of a hit and miss affair, particularly with the HD cameras. One particular problem I had with them was the microphone link up as they used an external microphone link up to one of two input sockets and to begin with this was very confusing as I didn’t know whether or not

it was working, but I now feel confident with them, and I think the footage I shot with them reflects this confidence. On first being introduced to Final Cut Express I found it to be quite daunting as it is not very user friendly, with its many tiny buttons and screens. However, once I began to experiment with it, I found it to be rather easier to use than I first thought and I now realise that all the tiny buttons are a very necessary part to making something visually attractive and engaging, without learning about the effects that Final Cut has to offer I feel that ‘ the Youth’ would not have been any where near as successful as it has proved to be. Another program that I have to use on the Mac is Photoshop for instance the poster on the right was created using it. I also learnt above a program called Livetype on the Mac, it was used to create the text graphic for the title and credits of ‘the Youth’ and it can be seen on the right here >

How much have you learnt?

Looking back on my preliminary task film I feel that I have definitely learnt a lot since then. This is shown in the differences between the planning stages and filming and editing stages of the two pieces. One major difference in the planning stage is the change in amount of storyboarding, for the final piece I drew lots of storyboards as we thought of ideas we could use, whereas in the early piece all that was really required was one. Another difference in the planning stage was the other items required such as posters, all of which were a learning experience for me, as I had to use new programs. The difference in the planning stage was that each shot was more considered and ordered, as we knew what we wanted before we began, whereas in the preliminary task it was much more of a ‘point the camera and hope it goes ok’ affair. I’ve learnt much about the mice en scene and cinematography of each shot, which was another factor as to why the filming was much more considered. The editing of the film was a much more complicated procedure with the final piece as there were many more factors to consider such as, the effects used on the shots and the atmospheric sounds and the speech over the top. This meant that editing was not just sequencing images but sequencing them with music and speech and trying to create an atmosphere through their sequencing. These changes in procedure represent what I have learnt since my preliminary film.