A2: Evaluating Skills Development in AS - Ettie Greenwood

A2: 'About a Girl' Analysis of representation (Class and Age) - Ettie Greenwood

• The first scene denotes a young girl singing and dancing in a field. Here she is represented as young and possibly lonely because she is alone, and she is doing an activities which as usually associated with children. She is also thought as innocent as she is in no danger, and because the audience can not yet see what she looks like (costume/hair/makeup) she seems as if she is the stereotypical child. However a binary opposition is created when she sings and the lyrics that she sings denote: "I've had enough, I'm not that innocent" and "I'm lonely". This may foreshadow a negative experience in her life and how that she wants to feel more grown up.

• When the girls costume is revealed, the audience may hold assumptions about her personality. The girl wears a white oversized puffer coat, tracksuit bottoms and large hoop earrings. This is the stereotypical of what some people think that a 'CHAV' would wear. As this type of person usually has negative assumptions, it may lead the audience to believe that she has had a troubled upbringing; especially as this personality is associated with the working class.

• The setting also connoted the working class environment: As the girl walks through the neighbour hood, a lot of run down neighbourhoods are denoted along with frequent graffiti and rubbish littered. This highlights the poverty influenced area and with the post-production effect: destaturated colour, the setting seems to be a negative place to be.

• Cuts are used throughout the piece to reinforce realism: It also allows continuity to be achieved as the sequence can flow without any obvious changes.

• The lighting in the sequence is dull and realist. This makes the setting seem real but unpleasant and adds to the working class environment. It may also foreshadow negative events later (getting rid of the baby).

• Throughout the piece, the camera is kept mostly at eye-level. This is so the audience can feel like the girl is talking to them as if they were her friend, and it also allows the audience to sympathize with her. However after the girl drops the bag in the river (the audience do not yet know what is in it), the camera moves away from the girl and raises up to a birds-eye view shot. This creates a sense of the relationship between the audience and the girl ending. This may foreshadow the audiences' reaction in the next shot whereby the dead baby is denoted to sink to the bottom of the reader, therefore the audiences reaction -whether sympathy or anger- may connote a change in the relationship/view that they had on the girl before.

• The girls accent: Slang and northern may also indicate to the audience about her background. These accents are stereotypically joined with those who are poverty stricken so  the audience may assume that she comes from a similar class.

• The girls' age is connoted throughout the whole piece. At one point she says: "I'm not 5...I'm 13" which may connote her desire to grow up quickly. She also talks about her future and how when shes older she will be rich. famous and "drink Bacardi breezers". This highlights her youth as most children have unrealistic dreams. It is also therefore a binary opposition from realism and her dreams, but also from poverty and wealth.

A2: 'Never Forget' Analysis of Representation (Gender) - Ettie Greenwood

• The first scene denotes parallel cuts of two people getting ready to go out. A non-diegetic soundtrack accompanies this (a piano instrumental piece) which gives a romantic feel to the piece. Both characters are stereotypical of their gender: the women is wearing a dress and heels, and the man is wearing a formal suit. The are then seen to be traveling, then when the man picks up his phone to call the women the audience can immediately tell that they are a couple. This is because the mans' 'lock screen' picture (shown through a CU) is an image of both of them together. This sets up the expectation for the reader that it will be a positive and loving night. 

• When the women gets questioned about what she did the previous night she seems uneasy and it is obvious to the audience that she is lying. This is confirmed when flashbacks are shown of the night before where she had gone out and the audience then assume that she slept with a guy even though she was married (she is shown taking off her ring discretely). As she talk on the phone about her night the camera tilts down slightly to form a low angle shot. This connotes that she has more power than the man at this time as she has lied to him and cheated on their relationship. This is shown with CU's of the man to emphasize his grief and emotions towards her actions (this is because he saw her going off with the new man).

• When the man ends the phone call after saying: "I want you to remember for the rest of your life, this is all your fault.." this could foreshadow bad events. This turns out to happen as moments later the man jumps of the building that he was in before and lands just in front of the women who was walking to the building. This part of the film is very shocking but could also be argued that it is a little over-exaggerated. However this may suggest that the man had very strong reactions and emotions towards the event as his reaction was fairly extreme. But it may also suggest that he is not your typical male character as the assumed reaction to this event would be anger with the women and not death. However the audience do not see the man cry, which means he holds with the stereotypical view that 'men don't cry'. 

• Femininity is shown in the clip when the girl screams: her scream is high pitched and long which denotes a stereotypical female scream. It is also very piercing and shocking which connotes that the event was unexpected for the women. In this shot, a low angle is also denoted which suggests power to the women (maybe unwanted power) as she has just caused the death, but it also allows the audience to see her facial expressions as she looks down at the dead man- it could also be argued as a slight POV shot- Also, be angling the camera up, this could foreshadow the event as the man jumps from the building.

A2 - 'Never Forget' Represenation of Gender - Olivia Farren

• In the first scene of this short film, we can hear the diegetic sound of music playing - the music is classical and could be described as 'swarve' - we also think this because whilst we hear the music playing, we see a males' hand unzipping the suit cover, therefore from the first scene the audience can link these two parts of the shots and make an assumption that the male character is being represented as smart and swarve (something that is often used to describe men, not women).
• The suit that we see the male character getting ready in; fixing his cufflinks and bow tie, the act of this clearly important as it's being shown to us in a CU shot; is an outfit that is stereotypically related to men - an item that only smart men wear - not women, and so can see that he is being represented as a stereotypical, smart male, therefore the audience can easily recognise the gender of the first character that appears in this short film.
• There is then a jump cut from the man getting ready, to a woman walking - straight away we notice differences as there is calming, classical music playing whilst the man gets ready, and then there is the noise of cars and the street when we then cut to see the women - the fact the jump cut shows us two completely different things can reflect how both characters are completely different (noticeably in gender).
• When we cut to first see the women, we straight away hear the diegetic sound of her footsteps - notably the sound of high heels clipping, a sound that we automatically relate to women.
• The fact that the female character is wearing heels, tights and a dress, shows us that she's being portrayed as very feminine - as this choice of costume is typically of what women are expected to wear and look like. So although we can see that she is being represented as feminine, it's also fairly stereotypically as this doesn't represent the female gender as a whole.
• Even though the female character isn't wearing much make up, the fact that the little make up she is wearing is emphasised by her checking it in the mirror tells us that the way she looks is very important to her - the assumption that look is very important and cared about it related to being feminine and female, which is contrasted to the fact that we don't see the male character checking himself in the mirror whilst he's getting ready at all.
• Along with the fact that we see the female character checking her hair and make up in the compact mirror, this CU shot gives us an view of what she's doing - checking her hair and make up, clearly showing us her feminine features and therefore also representing her as being feminine due to her actions.
• This CU shot also allows us to see that the compact mirror is in the shape of a heart - a shape that is very commonly associated with love, which is stereotypically what women are more obsessed and care about, as well as representing that women are the caring and nurturing gender, and so this heart-shaped compact mirror represents this character as being kind and loving - reflecting typical attributes of a women.
• In the short film, there is cross-cutting between the male and female characters as they're on the phone to each other, when the female answers the phone, she immediately says "I'm literally one minute away" in a stressed tone - the dialogue and the tone of voice that is used tells us that she is in a hurry as she's running late, and being late is a typical characteristic of females, usually to do with them taking time to get themselves ready, the fact she seems to be late suggests that she has taken too much time on worrying about her appearance - giving us the impression the impression that she's vein, yet another stereotypical aspect of the female gender, the idea that she is vein is again backed up in the previous shot of her looking in her compact mirror, maybe the reason she is running late?

A2 - 'About a Girl' Representation of Class and Age - Olivia Farren

• In the first scene we see the girl alone in a field - this could portray her innocence to us as we see her singing/dancing, something that most young girls stereotypically love. Although in this scene we could tell her as being young due to her being alone and singing (having nothing to worry about), we could also say she's being portrayed as unimportant - due to her being in the shadows and not shown fully, which could be telling us that she's unimportant due to her social background/class, although at this point we are yet to find that out.
• Throughout the short film, we see the girl talking to the camera whilst walking along the canal - here, age could be presented to us through the use of eye line match with the camera, which could be because are being made to sympathise with her whilst she's talking (almost patriotic), therefore we see her as being young.
• Along with the camera angle in these shots along the canal, there is also a very dull/dingy lighting - which we could connote with unhappiness and uncleanliness (both of which we could also relate to poverty), therefore this lighting tells us of the low class she is a part of/ living amongst.
• Not only is this dull/ cloudy lighting used in the scenes walking along the canal but also in the other scenes that we cut to; for example; when she's sitting in a café with her dad; - telling us that she's always been in this unhappy situation (possibly due to her class).
• When she's talking to the camera, we can clearly notice that she has a strong accent - we could collectively recognise this accent and dialect that she uses as being North West - which is an area that is, sometimes stereotypically, known to be an area with a lot of poverty and a lot of families living below the breadline, and so therefore we relate this accent that she is using to a low class.
• When the short film cuts to a scene of the girl with her dad, we see a father and daughter together - we often think that this relationship is mostly about a dad caring for a daughter, and therefore we think of the daughter being young, therefore this presents her age to us.
• Another scene in which she is presented to us as being fairly young, is that when she is sitting outside the pub whilst her dad is inside - the fact that she is outside, and not inside shows us that she is too young to contribute to this social practise. 
• The parallel cutting between the shots of the girl walking along the canal and the narrative shots of the girl in a small scene, could reflect how she's constantly in the same position - due to always being brought back to the same shot of her walking by the canal, possibly meaning that she has limited opportunities and therefore is seen in the same place again and again to show to the audience that her wealth is little to none and therefore so are her opportunities - representing her class to us.
• When we see the young girl walking along the canal, we notice that the surrounding area is run down, full of rubbish and dull-looking - these houses along the canal look a lot like stereotypical council houses, and so the audience can recognise that and then make a link between these houses and lower class that she is a part of. This aspect of mise en scene is important as it's clear to the audience to make connections between the run-down area and the characters class.
• As well as aspects of mise en scene, editing and camera angles; the dialogue also gives us a clear representation of her age, as she says; "like I'm 5...but hello, I'm 13"; here this states her age, but also clearly shows us that she is 13 by the sarcastic tone she says this in and the way that she almost wants to be recognised as an adult (what many teenagers want). She also says "my mum says..." a number of times; the fact that she listens and repeats what her mum says shows us that she still lives under her mums rules, and therefore again reflects her age as being fairly young.
• When the film cuts to the scene of the girl and her friends singing on the bus, this gives us an easily recognisable representation of young girls - giggling and having fun together, as well as this, the fact that they are travelling on a bus shows that they have little money and are too young to drive themselves.
• In many shots, she is wearing the same silver puffa coat - the fact that she is persisitantly wearing the same coat shows us that she has little money to have more than one coat - therefore reflecting her class to us again.

A2: Evaluation of Skills Development in AS year - Olivia Farren

Evaluating my Foundation Portfolio Thriller Opening - Olivia Farren

Further Evaluation into our 'Attention to Framing'

When filming our Preliminary task at the start of our Foundation Portfolio, we noticed that we didn't pay attention to framing in one shot as our notes are still layed on the desk, and this was not part of our storyline and so we made the mistake of not focusing on the framing of the shot, here is our mistake:

 

After realising we made this mistake, however, we soon re-filmed that scene, correcting our mistake and making sure the notes weren't on the desk and all aspects of mise en scene in that shot were exactly what we wanted, for example, we took down posters that were already in the room that didn't relate to our storyline. Here is our correction:





 

 

Through making this mistake in our Preliminary task, it meant that we knew what we needed to take more care of when filming our thriller opening and so this mistake that we made came as quite helpful as it taught us our weakness when creating our films; 'attention to framing'. After this happened, we took as much care as possible when filming our thriller opening to the composition of each shot; ensuring that the character and the dog were the focus of the shots, making sure in each shot all aspects of mise en scene were considered and also making sure that there were no unnecessary objects/passers by in the shots. 

Even though, after making the mistake in our preliminary task, and after carefully thinking about each shot in our thriller opening, we weren't quite perfect with every single shot as there was one shot in the beginning that we thought our equipment bag was far enough out of the shot, but however, was in the shot after all. Here is it, circled in red:

 

Rather annoyingly, we noticed the bag in the shot too late and we didn't have the chance to re-film this shot, and we couldn't crop it out of the shot in editing because it would have distorted the rest of the shot, and so we had to leave it in our final thriller opening.

I am disappointed that we didn't notice this in time or take more consideration of where we'd put the equipment bag each time we filmed a shot, especially as we made the same mistake in our preliminary task, and therefore I have overall learnt that there are many many things to take into consideration whilst filming, and that attention to framing is my weakness during filming and a lot more thought than previously needs to be put into it than before.

However, I am also pleased with our final thriller opening, despite the mistake we made, because for me it was the first time I had created and edited a media product, and so I think I have learnt a lot during this time.

Evaluation of AS Work - Ettie Greenwood

Detailed Evaluation of One Element- Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer.

I believe that this part of the assessment criteria was a little weak as when doing audience feedback, some of our audience were confused with what happened to the dog.

Here is one respondents' answer:

This highlights that without knowing the rest of the plot line, it may be confusing for some of the viewers. However this was harder to spot ourselves as we knew the context of the opening so everything for us made sense. 

Therefore, to overcome this, I think we should have asked people though out the editing process whether the piece made sense. This meant that we would be able to get an outside view and ensure that the editing made the meaning of the piece apparent to the viewer. However we could have also made the meaning clearer by editing our piece better: we decided not to show the object that the girl found in the opening, but this could have been the source of the confusion as instead this lead to people thinking that the dog had disappeared.Therefore, when we create our A2 piece, we need to ensure that we carefully edit our work to make the meaning easy to understand.

Also, now watching back our opening whilst knowing about the confusion, I am able to see what people think. This means that I am more likely to not make this mistake again which will hopefully make my A2 product more successful. 

Here is the part of the piece that people were getting confused about: