Evaluation 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media

products? Overall, our film does not challenge forms and conventions of real media

products of the genre teen drama. We used the opening sequence of the film ‘Juno’ as a style model as it is of the same genre. An example of a particular idea we used and adapted to our own film was from ‘Juno’. The montage of Juno walking whilst displaying the titles was effective as it established the

character and so we decided to do similar. A convention that it could be said that we adhered to was a wide variation of cinematography since this keeps

the target audience (teenagers) amused and engaged. Another typical convention of the genre that our film adhered to was the characteristics of our central protagonist. Abby is shy, reserved, fairly unpopular and finds it hard to

fit in into her school. This is similar to the main character, Cady, on the film Mean Girls who has similar characteristics.

The Title Of Our Film

This is the title of our film. We decided to put it at the end of the credits and it is also in a different font to the rest of the titles in order to mark it as the most significant title. This is typical of the genre, for example the film ‘Juno’ has a similar ordering and the title is also at the end. The name ‘Beyond

Closed Eyes’ relates to the dream that occurs and how it happens whilst she is asleep. I believe that it gives it a mysterious feel since you can’t see anything with your eyes closed. It also doesn’t give

away too much of the film and we would hope that anyone would be drawn into watching it. Regarding the other titles of the film, we challenged the normal amount of titles that would be

displayed and only included the name of the director, producer and screenplay, the most important roles in our opinion. We did this because we know that teenagers, the target audience, have a short

memory span and want to watch the movie instead of observing the titles which is not generally amusing. This could potentially lose their interest.

Setting/location

This is an establishing shot of our first location; Abby’s house. We thought a lot about the composition of the shot and framed it so that the trees were included in the shot to give it an eerie feeling a long with a clear shot of the house. This subverts from the genre in a way and conforms more to a thriller-like genre however we thought such a shot would make the audience feel tense and want to continue watching. We recorded this shot during dawn not only because the character would clearly be asleep and it further sets the scene, but it adds to the already eerie feel of it. We have subverted the setting convention in that we have shot it in a middle class area whereas indie film are typically filmed in urban areas.

Our other setting was the school that we currently attend called St John’s. This was a perfect setting since our school is similar to what we planned Abby’s school to be. The informal common room setting was also ideal and since it matches the teen drama genre, it’s a natural and typical environment for a girl of such an age, and it reflects the behaviour of all of our characters.

Props And Costumes

Props that we used in our film include objects such as a picture of Chris, Abby’s love interest, to emphasis her crush on him right at the beginning of the film. We made sure to compose a shot which would emphasise the picture so that the audience would take notice of it even if it is subconsciously. We edited the photo into black & white as this is a typical effect used on photos by teenage girls. We also drew hearts on the photo to reiterate the fact that she has strong feelings for him. Many teen dramas include a love interest such as Juno, Princess Diaries, and Angus thongs and perfect snogging since it is a convention that many teenagers can relate to. In all of these cases, it is the girl who is more obviously into the boy. We developed this stereotype however by making her stalker-like with such a picture by her bed and the picture that later falls out of her pocket.

We didn’t think too much about the costumes since our actors are of nearly identical demographics to the characters themselves. We merely gave them guidelines such as nothing revealing, too colourful, or too outgoing in order to suit the characters. Since they can be considered to be the underdogs of the school, we also made sure that they didn’t wear anything too fashionable and that there clothes were quite casual. If we were to carry on the production of the film, following the typical conventions of a teen drama, Abby could have become out of her shell and more popular and such a change in event could be represented by her fashion sense.

Camerawork and editing

During the montage where we displayed the opening credits, we made sure to include a diverse range of different camera shots, angles, compositions and thought a lot about the cinematography to keep the audience interested. The shot above was a long shot used to establish the setting and the character however it was also panning to demonstrate her actions and more of the location. Other shots we used in this particular montage included a close-up, a medium shot, a wide shot and we also used a tracking shot.

The shot above is of the conversation between the two characters Abby and Ella. We used shots here such as two shots to show the general relation between the two characters; close-ups and medium shots, to expose their reactions to each other and for the audience to focus on what they are saying; and over the should shots in order to show the audience what the characters are thinking possibly causing more empathy for whichever character it is. Reviewing our final film opening however, I don’t think that we incorporated enough over the shoulder shots; a convention often used in teen dramas to establish the position of each person, and get the feel of looking at one person from the other's point of view.

Title font and style

Here’s a shot of our final title. We chose the light blue colour since it has cool and relaxed connotations which typically matches a

teenagers view towards life, or at least the ideal view. Every other teen drama film also has a ‘funky’ looking title. We also chose this font since we thought it would be aesthetically pleasant, we even

asked a few members of our target audience what they thought of it and they all agreed that it was suitable. We made sure that it was

sans serif since this would subvert the modern connotations of which we wanted to convey.

Story and how the opening sets it up

We opened the story up by immediately showing a close up of charlotte with a picture of her love interest Chris in the background (with hearts over the photo) to suggest that he is an important part

of her life and since there is a wide focus on the photo, he will more then likely be a big part of the story. The dream that Abby has is also a big part of the story and this is shown by when the

next day in school she speaks to her friend Ella and she declares how caught up about the dream she in fact is. This implies that it

may be an on going theme throughout the film.

Genre and how the opening suggests it

Our genre is teen drama with aspects of romance and possibly comedy. The genre is demonstrated through problems developing

immediately that would usually only be relevant to teenagers such as ‘crushes’ and the inability to talk to your love interest. The screenshot

above demonstrates the awkward moment when Chris discovers Abby photo of him; this proposes an immediate dilemma for Abby.

This could challenge the forms of real media since although we are following the equilibrium cycle, a film would usually turn into a state of disequilibrium in the middle of it, here however a problem is offered

within the first couple of minutes.

How characters are introduced

The first real event we see occurring is the dream which conveys Abby to be possibly troubled since she dreams such odd things however this is contradicted when she wakes up looking confused. The montage of her walking to school portrays her as a normal teenager, she is listening to music which is a typical activity for most teens. She doesn’t do anything out of the normal and so she is introduced as an average teenager.

We are first introduced the Ella, Abby’s best friendoutside of the school. It is immediately obvious that she is a quirky, outgoing character from when she broadly waves and naturally hugs Abby. The hug also emphasises their friendship. We were inspired by the character on Princess Diaries called Lilly who also is the best friend of the main protagonist. We followed some of her characteristics such as her over friendly-ness. Throughout their conversation, Ella seems to be the more talkative and outgoing character making Abby seem quiet and reserved. Their personalities clearly contrast. Ella also seems quite selfish and uncaring when she dismisses Abby’s worry about her dream.

Special effects

We added many effects into our film opening using iMovie. Simple effects included ones such as the ‘Deluxe Studios’

title and other fade in and fade out transitions. Another transition that we used was ‘Ripple’, an iMovie transition which lead the film from normality to the dream. Another effect we used was enhancing the brightness during the

dream. This made it much brighter than normal as you can see in the image above. This created a surreal effect and

highlighted the fact that it was a dream.