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

1. Activity
one
“With You”
evaluation

2. Setting and Location
• I looked at multiple Indie opening sequences to
create a opening that fit into that genera and give
me a clearer understanding of what I would need to
create.
• We shot our opening in two different locations, a
bed room and a park/wood. Coming of age films often
uses theses locations and we choice to combine them
to create something that is unique and different
• From looking at two similar films such as Pretty in
Pink and Perks of being a wall flower that were
created in different decades. They both uses a
bedroom opening, In pretty in pink it is entirely
her getting ready, this is similar to our opening
where the second half is the girl getting ready.
• We also choice to draw from the stillness of the
bedroom scene in Perks of being a wallflower
because after the crazy dream opening in our
opening the stillness of her waling up is very
effective.

3. Costume
• The use of costume in my media product “With you” is a
way to show an insight into the character. In the first
part of the opening the all black costume she is
wearing is a reflection of her inner turmoil which
makes her a characters relatable to the
indie/alternative social group. The dark moody nature
of her costume is juxtaposing to the calm serine
background of the forest at the start. This sets a dark
tense, atmosphere and suggest that the characters is
very isolated.
• The atmosphere created by the costume is important as
an opening should be about atmosphere rather than
narrative as we learnt on a trip to the BFI. So I kept
this in mind when choosing the costume of the character
as it sets the first impression.

4. Genre
• The genre of my film is suggested through my
opening and gives the audience an understanding
of what the film might be about whilst still
drawing them in (which is have learnt through
feedback). The production companies at the start
of the opening, which I created are small
independent film houses hence the name “Tin
house”. This sets up that it will be an
independent film as no major film cooperation's
are mentions such as “ 20th century fox”.
• The establishing shot of the girl walking in and
toward the camera is foreshowing of her going on
a journey of self discovery as she is on her own.
Because of this it suggest in the opening that
the film will be a coming of age teen film. This
is also enhanced due to the girl being a young
age of 17, which is audience will be able to
relate to.

5. The Title’s
• The title of our film stems form the genre. Our film follows a girl who is on a
both metaphorical and literal journey of self discovery. And how relationships
with people shape who you become, So we decided to use this to help come up with
the idea for the title “With You” because she goes through the film with her
friends but also with the audience as we would want it to be a very relatable
movie.
• Coming of age/ indie films do follow a pattern in the titles order of appearance
and we followed that to make it look professional. We wanted our film to be an
indie film so we decide on trying out different quirky fonts that resemble the
individual characters in the film and set up that atmosphere. getting
inspiration from films such as Clueless, Breakfast Club and Napoleon Dynamite

6. Camera work + editing
• My opening shows a variety of shots from wide shots to medium shots and a
range of extreme close ups. I used a tripod through the filming process to
ensure that the footage was still and would give it a more professional
look in the final edit. Due to there being one character in the opening
the shots are of her, the use of close ups give the audience a clear
indication that she is the main charters. The use of extreme close create
an intimate relationship with the audience and show the charades
vulnerability. The use of the tripod was key to this as the stillness of
the shots makes them very effective in creating a weir and tense
atmosphere. Although I did not record/film the shots, I had a large role
in directing and planning the shots through my uses of storyboard. Helping
me get a visual idea of what it would look like.
• To edit the opening I used “Final Cut X”, A complex and professional
editing software and I also used “Motion” to create the clones at the
start. Both programs are used professionally in the industry which gave me
a lot of control over the footage which I needed to create the difficult
clone section. I made it by motion tracking each shot that we shot
separately, cropped it and layered it onto the main shot of the girl
walking. This was very effective in showing the characters confutation and
followed the conventions of a teen film in showing the troubled emotion of
the protagonist.

7. Special effects
• The special effects in my film create a very
interesting start of the opening and resemble
the confusion of the main character. I wanted
to follow the convections of using one
character in the opening of teen movies. But I
also wanted to challenge the conventions by
using SPX to create something unique. The
special effects of the multiple clones of the
character resemble the mind set of the main
girl and has strong connotations of the indie
alternative sub group mind-set which would
appeal to my target audience. The use of the
SPX foreshadows the characters struggle to
accept herself in the rest of the film hence
the multiple versions. I chose not to use any
SPX through the rest of the opening after the
dream to follow the conventions of a teen movie
to give it balance and not apply to much
narrative.