Institution Analysis

When choosing for the institute that would produce my film, I first had to choose which industry my film was going to be distributed in. It would either be the Indian film industry of Bollywood, the American film industry of Hollywood, or the British film industry.

Since my film is a chick flick, I needed to keep in mind the kind of codes and conventions needed for my chosen industry. Every industry has a very different culture, with very different demands of the target audience. The kind of chick flick I am making is centered around teenagers. A teen film holds the elements of that part of a child's life when they are realizing new ambitions and emotions, become rebellious and want to be accepted in society, creating a personality of their own. My film shows the story of a girl with a background that not many cinema-goers are familiar with. It is about someone who is different from everyone else but wants to fit in and be accepted. This very first element is relatable to any young girl who watches films, hence it has already started meeting the codes and conventions of a teen film or chick flicks. But, the way these teens are picturized can be different in every industry. Obviously, the culture of India will be differernt to America's or Britain's.

Bollywood mostly produces commercial musicals, with alot of glamour and dance numbers included. For a film to be successful at the box office in this industry, these elements are necessary. The kind of film I want to make will definitely not include any songs or dance numbers. My target audience is young teenage girls, but the teenage girls of India are not the same as teenage girls around the word. A film without that level of glamour will never be that successful in Bollywood. The kind of codes and conventions I am planning to use do not match the kind of codes and conventions used in Bollywood. In Bollywood, the audiences for films are almost the same. There is no differentiation as to whether a teenager will watch a certain kind of film in India or not. There is no real specification for 'chick flick'. A romantic film being watced by a teenager will be equally enjoyed by a person in their 40's. There are no chick flicks made in Bollywood specifically for my target audience. One example of a movie made by targeting the female audience would be the film 'Aisha', starring Sonam Kapoor and Abhey Deol. The glamour was not up to the level that is demanded by the audience. This film was a typical romantic-comedy made for girls, holding all elements of fashion, friends, fun, etc, but still it did not manage to become a success. Despite following the elements I need for my film, 'Aisha' was not a hit, because the Indian audience demands something else entirely. Which is why I will not choose Bollywood as my industry.

In the case of the British film industry, we can see that comedy films like 'Four weddings and a funeral' are more in demand by the audience instead of romantic comedies. Britain does not produce as many chick flicks. A prominant international hit would include 'Notting Hill'. By looking at the Hollywood made chick flick 'Wild Child', we can see the differentiation between girls in America and in Britain. Teenagers still in school in Britain usually are shown as more studious as compared to American teenagers. My kind of film holds the stereotype where girls are shown as very shallow, and caring about materialistic things like clothes. Such a culture is more widely seen in America than in Britain, which is why my film might not be accepted entirely in the British industry, or would not be a major success, as it would not be very relatable. Romantic Comedies distributed in Britain are not as successful as the comedy or art films distributed. Also, the culture of Britain is not as diverse. My film will show the culture of my country, showing the religous demands of a teen's parents. Such a culture might not be well received in Britain as it might be elsewhere. Majority of the target audience may find the film strange and somewhat shallow. Therefore, I will not choose the British film industry either.

Finally coming to Hollywood, I can easily say that my film will be easily accepted here. Hollywood not only has a long list of romantic comedies produced, it also has a diverse culture that easily accepts something different. It has produced worldwide international hits like 'Pretty Woman' and 'Sleepless in Seattle'. Chances of romantic comedy films becoming commercial successes are higher in Hollywood, as the demand for this genre is also higher. Hollywood has created most films of this genre as compared to the other two film industries mentioned above. American girls are usually seen as the stereotyped 'dumb blondes' who take most interest in shopping. In most Hollywood teen films, the main character is also usually shown as having a hard life in highschool, having trouble being socially accepted. Such films include 'Wild Child' and 'A Cinderella story', both commercial successes. Such films usually become successful in Hollywood because the targeted audience can relate to it. My film holds all the codes and conventions that a Hollywood film holds: girl drama, rebellion against parents, the need to fit in, girlie elements including shopping, make-overs and first crushes. I instantly decided that my chosen film industry will definitely be Hollywood.

I had come across these three main production houses: Warner Bros, Paramount Pictures and Columbia Pictures.

Warner Bros.

This company was founded in 1918, by the four brothers, Jack, Harry, Albert and Sam Warner. It also has seperate divisions, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Animation, Warner Home Video, New Line Cinema, TheWB.com, and DC Comics. Warner owns half of The CW Television Network. Even though it makes over $11.7 billion per year because of producing famous franchises like 'The lord of the rings', 'Harry Potter' and 'Batman: the dark knight', it does not cater much to the romantic comedy genre, and has produced only a few commercially successful chick flicks, including 'Monster-in-law' which is why I have not chosen Warner Bros. as my choice of institution.

Columbia Pictures

This is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It was founded in founded in 1919 by brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and Joe Brandt. It has definitely produced commercially successful romantic comedies, including, 'The Wedding planner', '50 first dates', 'The ugly truth', and 'The bounty hunter'. However, the films of this genre that have been made for my specific target audience (teenaged girls) have not been very successful, with films like "Win a date with Tad Hamilton!" in the list. Other films that gained success were made for the slightly older audience, and hence, did not cater to the target audience for my film, which is why I have not chosen Columbia pictures as my choice of institution.

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures has been making incredible movies ever since the year 1912, when it was established. In 2012 it will have completed 100 years in the film making industry. Founded by Adolph Zukor, it has joint ventures with Dreamworks pictures, as well as some with Warner Bros. and is part of the divisons of Viacom - the world's fourth-largest media conglomerate. Paramount has also produced one of the top-grossing films of all time, including Titanic (winner of 11 Academy Awards), franchises like Mission Impossible, Indiana Jones, The GodFather and Friday the 13th. It has been very versatile with the films it has produced, as the films under it's brand name range from the genre of action, to drama to romantic-comedy.
I have chosen Paramount pictures as my  institution as it has also produced a few top-grossing romantic-comedies, as well as films which have done very well at the box-office. These are some of the romantic-comedies it has produced:

Runaway bride(1999)
What women want (2000)
How to lose a guy in ten days(2003)
The prince & me (2004)
Mean Girls(2004)
Elizabeth Town (2005)
She's out of my league (2010)
No strings attached (2011)

Paramount pictures made around $1.2 billion in 2011.

Runaway Bride is one of the highest grossing romantic comedy films of all time. 'No strings attached' was also one of the highest grossing films of the year 2011. And my personal favourite chick flick of all time is definitely 'Mean Girls'. When first starting off with making a chick flick, the very first film that I took inspiration from was Mean Girls. I would want my film to hold all the same elements as this film. It grossed over $129 million worldwide. It talks exactlly about the kind of teen drama that a teenage girl goes through, and the same kind of drama I want in my film. Being a worldwide hit, it was enjoyed and accepted by girls of the same age all across the world.

Looking at all the romantic comedies produced by Paramount, I can see that my film has the element that this institute would want to produce. The films produced are based mainly around ordinary people, instead of glamorous rich ones. This makes the film relatable to the audience. The target audience for my film will also need to relate to the characters, making the film more dynamic, and less forgetable. The reason my film will not be forgetable is the culture added to it. The kind of culture I will show in my film will reflect the somewhat religous and conservative aspect of my country, which will bring a new and unusual cultural film, which at the same time is also relatable, to the list of films produced in Paramount's history. Taking the example of the film 'Bend it like Bekham', the film received very good reception, due to its cultural aspect which the audience had not seen before but had accepted and enjoyed.

The cultural aspect of my film would be the reason that I would want Paramount pictures to produce it. Films like 'The Guru' have also included the cultural aspect but the film did not become a huge success. Paramount is notable for producing world class films, and can provide a big budget to increase the chances of turning the film into a success. Worldwide distribution is also an added factor in Paramount pictures, since their films have always been received extremely well in any part of the world, even India and Britain, and have become commercial successes globally.

For producing films like 'Titanic' and 'Mission Impossible', the reputation of the film industry is massive and is recognized by even the most common man who is unfamiliar with the world of media. Titanic, is ranked as the second highest grossing film in history. Becuase of its recognition, Paramount can choose any well-known celebrity for their films. The element of a well-known celebrity can become an added factor to a film's success, for example, a film with Tom Cruise as the protagonist may be more appealing to the target audience instead of having a small-scale actor in the lead role.

Paramount pictures can not only aid my film with its huge budget and worldwide reputation, it can also improve the film, exactly the way it has turned the ordinary story of 'Mean Girls' into a phenomenal success. For my chick flick, I could not have chosen a different institution, because with Paramount pictures, my film can an assured success.

Institution: Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures has been making incredible movies ever since the year 1912, when it was established. In 2012 it will have completed 100 years in the film making industry. Founded by Adolph Zukor, it has joint ventures with Dreamworks pictures, as well as some with Warner Bros. and is part of the divisons of Viacom - the world's fourth-largest media conglomerate. Paramount has also produced one of the top-grossing films of all time, including Titanic (winner of 11 Academy Awards), franchises like Mission Impossible, Indiana Jones, The GodFather and Friday the 13th. It has been very versatile with the films it has produced, as the films under it's brand name range from the genre of action, to drama to romantic-comedy.
We have chosen Paramount pictures as our institution as it has also produced a few top-grossing romantic-comedies, as well as films which have done very well at the box-office. These are some of the romantic-comedies it has produced:

Runaway bride(1999)
What women want (2000)
How to lose a guy in ten days(2003)
The prince & me (2004)
Mean Girls(2004)
Elizabeth Town (2005)
She's out of my league (2010)
No strings attached (2011)

Questionnaire Analysis

We can see through the female and male responses in the questionnaire, that, our targeted audience from the age group of 13-17 and the age group of 18-25 almost have the same choices. 3 out of 5 females chose "Romantic-Comedy" as their favourite genre, and even though in male responses, the choice of films written were mostly horror or action, the alternate choice of genre was also Romantic Comedy. This means that if we had to make a Romantic-Comedy film, it would also be accepted by the male audience, which brings us to the decision that Romantic-Comedy will be the genre for our film.

Romantic-comedies are often deemed as "Chick Flicks", which makes the female audience our main  targeted audience. Examples of such films include: "Mean Girls", "27 Dresses", "Ten things I hate about you".


We were unsure about our choice of storyline. Our questionnaires revealed that in the question of "You would like to watch a film about", no one replied with "Religion" as their choice, instead, they chose "About someone from their age group". So this helps us decide that Humera's choice of storyline, which was going slightly towards religion, would not be accepted by the targeted audience, as they would be more interested to watch a film about someone similar to themselves.





We asked our audience what makes them lose their interest in a film. Reasons varied from bad music, to bad acting, to slow beginning and finally to confusing story. Since our product needs to be a 2 minute sequence of the opening titles of a movie, we needed to keep all elements in mind. Seeing from our results, we can tell that majority of the audience said that a slow beginning would bore them in a film. Our opening credits will be the beginning, and we need to make sure that our film is fast-paced, creating a feeling of excitement and energy, instead of a slow and monotonous beginning. We will also have to use the kind of music that the audience enjoys (whose results we found through our research) otherwise, bad or unfamiliar music will only turn the audience away from the plot. A very simple story can also become confusing through bad execution. Which is why, our scenes and shots used need to be very clear. Bad acting will also be an issue in a film, as it will not allow the audience to relate to the characters. Our results have shown mixed results, with portions of the audience each having different views, but through these results we can tell that most emphasis needs to be put on the pace of the film, as majority voted that a slow beginning will bore them in a film.

We also asked our audience watch makes them interested in watching a film, as in, what element in the opening credits would make them want to continue watching a film. A fascinating beginning would mean to use an artistic way of presenting the base of the story, not using obvious shots or dialogues, in the purpose of trying to make the audience guess the plot. But our results have shown that 0% would be interested in such a beginning. Hence, we can tell that our sequence needs to be very clear and simple, not trying to confuse the audience. A hint of culture would also be appreciated by some portion of the audience, but the main pressure would be on having a different story as 60% of the audience voted for that option. Our story will have to be something unusual and out-of-the-ordinary, so that it seems appealing to the audience, instead of something they had already heard or seen before.

Also, almost every response to the question: "You watch films to.." was "To gain entertainment". Judging from this response, the targeted audience would be more interested in watching a light and casual film which provides humour and fun, instead of a serious film with a unusual story.

In choice of background music, the responses from both male and female varied. Every answer showed a different choice of music style. However, majority of the audience chose 'pop' as their favourite music. According to the favourite genre chosen by the audience, this choice of music is appropraite. Our results have shown us the clear answer when deciding on the kind of music for our film.

The choice of font colour also varied. Female and Male responses both chose different colours ranging from black to pink. But since our film is going to be a "Chick Flick", it would be preferable to use a stereotype that "Girlie" colours like pink and orange would be the correct choice, even though only 1 out of 5 females chose pink as their favourite.

Questionnaires: Male Response

Questionnaires: Female Response

Codes and Conventions

The codes and conventions in media are the techniques applied into a media text to make it seem more relateable and believeable. In short, these codes and conventions try to establish an imrpession and create a sense of character and reality. This affects the reaction of the targeted audience as well.

Codes and conventions can be seperated into two categories - Symbolic and Technical.

The symbolic codes and conventions are also known as "Symiotics". These codes try to create the real feeling and persona of the media text, using things like the actions, clothes or way of speaking of the characters to help us determine the kind of personality they have. The symiotics create the desired impression.

In this photograph, for example, the codes used - the expression of the sad girl, her glasses, the group of people in the background - make us ponder on what the girl is thinking. At first thought, we can tell that she is sad, because, perhaps she is not accepted in the circle of people she wants to be around. And maybe this is because her glasses give her a 'nerdy' and 'uncool' look. This is how the codes have given us such an impression and emotion. 

The Technical side of codes and conventions includes camera angles, lighting, sound, editing and framing.
Camera angles affect the media text immensely. To create the sense of emotion, close-up shots are used to show the character's expressions. If a long shot had been used, it would not have made the target audience relate to or empathize with the character. In the same way, every camera angle is used to make the media text more realistic.
Editing is also a crucial part in any media text. Other conventions such as sound and lighting, vary from every genre. But editing is the only thing that needs to be done precisely in every type of text. If the editing is jumpy or abrupt, it will make the audience irritated and will instantly make the text look unrealistic.
Sound creates the mood according to the visuals. It also adds more impact to the visuals. For exanple, fast-paced music is used in action sequences, whereas, slow music is used(when the character is feeling sad) to show the emotions being felt at that moment.
Lighting plays a key role in creating the desired impression in a media text. Bad lighting might cause the text to look unclear, which might lead the viewer into losing interest. But it is also used to create feeling.

For example, in this photograph, the lighting used is very dark, and it gives a very sinister effect. Such lighting is used in horror films, to give the feel of dread and fear.

And finally, framing also holds alot of importance. The framing of a media text helps us realize things like, which character is the main and which character is the villain, etc. For example, the lead hero is most likely going to have more shots in the frame, which makes us interested in him and would make us know that the story revolves around him. And also, improper framing might make the text look impractical. 

Media Institutions

DreamWorks Pictures:
This is an American film studio founded by reknowned film-maker, Steven Spielberg, in 1994. It is most famous for films like:
Gladiator
Transformers
Dreamgirls
Catch me if you can
Shrek
Shark Tale
Kung Fu Panda
Madagascar
How to train your dragon

Walt Disney Pictures:
It is one of the oldest film studios in history, being founded by Walt Disney in 1929. It has several different distribution companies.

Walt Disney Studios motion pictures:
Pirates of the Caribbean
National Treasure
Enchanted

Touchstone pictures:
Con Air
Armageddon
Pearl Harbour

Pixar Animation Studios:
Toy Story
Finding Nemo
A Bug's life

Walt Disney Studio Animations:
The little Mermaid
Beauty and the Beast
Sleeping Beauty
Cinderella

20th Century Fox:
This studio was a merger of Fox Films and 20th Century Pictures in 1935.
Avatar
Star Wars
X-Men
Dr.Dolittle
Night at the Museum
Planet of the apes
Ice Age
Alvin and the chipmunks

Warner Bros.
This company was founded in 1918. It also has seperate distributors, one of the notable ones was New line Cinema.
The lord of the rings
Harry Potter
Batman: the dark knight
The Departed

New Line Cinema:
Final Destination
Raise your voice
Monster-in-law
Hairspray

Starting on the final film

The first thing we had to decide before working on our final film, was the genre. As advised by our teacher, we had to work in groups. I am working with my partner Humaira, the same person I worked with on the preliminary video. Humaira wanted to do a romantic-comedy, but I wanted to do drama. We eventually decided on doing a romantic-comedy/drama film. We sat down and made a list of films that we both liked, and the kind of film we would want to make.

Our list of films:

1.Beastly. Dir. Daniel Barnz. Perf. Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Hudgens. CBS Films, 2011. Film.

2. Life As We Know It. Dir. Greg Berlanti. Perf. Josh Duhamel, Katherine Heigl. Warner Bros., 2010. Film.

3.The Pursuit Of Happyness. Dir. Gabriel Muccino. Perf. Will Smith, Jaden Smith.

Columbia Pictures, 2006. Film.

4.Killers. Dir. Robert Luketic. Perf. Ashton Kutcher, Katherine Heigl. Lionsgate, 2010.

Film.

5. 27 Dresses. Dir. Anne Fletcher. Perf. Katherine Heigl, James Marsden. 20th Century Fox, 2008. Film.

6. Raise Your Voice. Dir. Sean McNamara. Perf. Hillary Duff, Oliver James. New Line Cinema, 2004. Film.

7. Soul Surfer. Dir. Sean McNamara. Perf. Anna Sophia Robb, Carrie Underwood. Tristar Pictures, Film District. 2011 Film.

We basically wanted to do a commercial film that would apeal mostly to the younger generation, mainly teenagers from the age of 13 onwards. But at the same time, something that would seem interesting to the older age groups as well.

By some miracle, our preliminary video was finally made. Ok, i can now say that i honestly understand why actors get paid so much! since i was shooting at home (with my Sony Handi-cam) i needed to teach my mom and my sister how to act. mom didn't have any poblem delivering the dialogues, but my sister kept looking at the camera and wouldn't stop smiling, even though in the film, she's supposed to be sad!

after alot of mistakes, she finally managed to act it out. it took about half an hour to shoot a film with a duration of under 2 minutes, from 5 different angles! but it was fun. my partner did the editing using the software of Vegas Pro.

our video turned out better than expected, because we were so short on time. making our final film will be a little easier

Match on action

180 degrees rule

Preparing for the first project

So i came to school after 2 weeks because i was unwell. My first media practicals class, and i was blank. instantly i was piled with the project of the preliminary video, and i had no partner, and no idea how to edit. the only thing i had learnt so far were the 180 degrees rule, the shot-reverse-shot, and the match-on-action.

 luckily though, there was a new girl in school that day who was just as blank as me, and knew how to do editing! plus, everyone else had already made their groups. So then we started planning what to do at once, because we had only four days to submit our work.

we wanted to keep it plain and simple, becuase it would be really difficult to get some "actors" to act out for us. First, we tried to get some of our school friends to do it for us during school hours, but everyone had classes and we just couldn't get the time. finally, we decided that i would do the filming at home, and my partner would do the editing herself. since this was just the first project, and we were short on time, we had to work under the circumstances.

Preliminary Video With Subtitles