My Powerpoint - Documentary

This is my powerpoint about how dating has overall changed throughout the years this is what i was hoping my documentary would be on however I decided to change the subject of my documentary to the dark side of online dating and how it impacts someone, merely because I believe that it is a topic that people are not as knowledgeable about and a topic that would be easier to do as the history of online dating is something that is everlasting 

Media Production Film/TV UAL Level 2

Preaya Skerritt.

PLOT OVERVIEW

The film that I have decided to analyze is the movie called Mean girls, which is a 2004 all American teen comedy film which was directed by Mark Waters and written by Tina Fey. The movie is about a girl called Cady Heron that moves from living in Africa due to her parents being involved in a research program to moving again to the United States. Cady Heron then gets in a group called the plastics an all girl group that holds authority over the peers in their school. 

The movie is known to have some symbolic themes such as the color pink which is seen all around the movie and represented stereotypically as a girly color which is one of the reasons why this movie is seen to be more liked by the female gender. In fact, there is a very famous quote that is very recognizable in the movie which is ‘’on Wednesdays we wear pink’’ which again brings up the pink reference.

 

                              (As you can see the common color the Plastics wear is pink)

The location of the film is located in Evanston Illinois, in an all-American themed high school called North Shore, some scenes are filmed in a shopping center. Most of the scenes appear to be bright and in a busy environment because the movie is very teen related, although the environment is packed there is one group of girls in North Shore that captures the center of the attention which are the plastics. As they walk throughout the school their body language shows how much authority and power they obtain. 

 (They walk with their heads held high and good posture whilst making themselves appear girly and feminine) 

 What also shows that the Plastics are important is not just through their posture but also through the lighting aspect of this film, the lighting appears to be much more brighter and a high key lightening as soon as they step onto the scene.  When they walk into the scene it is even edited to make the Plastics appear that they are walking in slow motion simply to show that they are better than everyone else and that they’re the superior ones of the school.  Besides the lighting there clothing and the style of it really contributed well towards the fact that they are popular as their clothes seem to be hip than everyone else’s, it also related to the genre of theme about them being young. Which fits the theme as well about stereotypes is the use of props the plastics have in the film you see a lot of props such as purses, hairbrushes, dresses and all things girls related which could be one of the reasons why this movie is more female influenced. Some of the members even carry a cup of coffee. 

There is even another stereotype that is placed in this movie regarding females with blonde hair. Karen Smith is a rather blunt and dumb character who is known to act unaware and just clueless towards the rest of the members of the Plastics and the situations they encounter.

 

 She is known to say quite ignorant stuff without really thinking of the consequence. For example, in one scene she says her cousin is ‘’hot’’ and a ‘’good kisser’’ and in another scene that she feels like she is psychic due to her breasts always predicting when it is going to rain. She is the exact stereotype representing that blonde girls appear to be dumb and unaware of their surroundings and people.

Facial expression is also a factor that is played out throughout the movie, the plastics are known to use their facial expressions to their advantage to show their dominance towards their peers and also some people in the shopping center.

This is the scene when Regina George the main leader of the plastics realizes her dress does not fit her and is asked to leave the shop and go to sears.

Her facial expression shows how frustrated she is by the retailers’ advice and also shows how threatening she may look to others.This scene is perfect for seeing the expression she has and the rest of the plastics, the scene shot turns to a middle scene so you can see the anger on her face and how the rest of the plastics empathize due to her frustration.

How camera angles made an impact in the film

The camera angles was an important part of the film it allowed the viewers to see the expressions more of the characters and the surroundings really well. The camera angles varied from being a medium shot to a pan shot which was used to show the surroundings of the high school and last but not least there was some close up shots in the film to add an intense atmosphere.

 

For example, in this phone scene, they are some long shots and some close-up shots. You notice that in the close up shot you can see more emotion some of the plastics members obtain whilst speaking on the phone.

Connotation Signs

When it came to denotation and connotation signs of the movie Mean Girls there are quite visible signs which were even present in the film cover. The cover instantly shows the vulnerable person Cady Heron and besides her the Plastics presenting themselves in a confident and powerful way.  The Plastics in the cover look quite intimidating giving the ‘’always watch your back’’ vibe whereas Cady by her body language looks innocent and defenseless.

The cover also links to the pink reference again  that stereotypically girls find that color amusing. 

The font appears to be big and eye-catching and yet again in the color pink, the word that stands out the most is ‘‘mean’’ because this is evident from the film that one of the main characters is a victim towards the Plastics.You can see the contrast of the Plastics and Cady Heron through their clothing to the plastics seem to be dressed like a stereotypical girly girl whereas Cady does not fit that criteria her clothing seems to be quite the opposite from the Plastics.

Conclusion : Overall it is been proven that the target audience  for this film is mostly aimed at the female gender simply because of the symbolic signs and girly themes, you could tell that the film was also a movie that would be targeted at the younger generation because of the comedic and immature scenes that were placed in the movie, it has been said that when the movie came out it was age restricted at 12+ which is very understandable.  The movie Mean girls was meant to be an attraction for females rather than males despite this they are some males  that find mean girls an attraction to them and a good movie.

Questionnaire

Media & Audiences

I decided to produce a questionnaire to find out information on what gender has seen Mean girls the most and what gender liked the movie the most. I had 8 questionnaires and decided to give them out to four girls and four boys.

The outline of my questionnaire.

Questionnaire

How old are you? 

16 - 19    20 - 23     23+

What do you like about the movie mean girls?

The characters

The plot

The soundtrack

Other:

Do you identify with the characters?

Yes    No 

Who is your favorite character in Mean girls?

Cady Heron   Regina George  Karen Smith  Gretchen Wieners 

Other: 

Do you think this movie is mostly liked by girls?

Yes     No

Were there any scenes you found relatable?

Yes    No 

Do you feel like you relate to some of the characters in the film

Yes   No

What I discovered from my questionnaire is that most of the females liked the characters and identified with them whereas the boys did not identify with the characters at all and found the movie to be a movie that is mostly relatable towards females. A lot of the guys circled yes on the 5th question and some of the guys wanted me to show them the trailer again to be reminded as to what was present in the movie. 

From my questionnaire answers, it presented that the girl audience overtakes the boy audience as most of the females I questioned knew a lot about the film and found it interesting whereas the boys could not even recognize a character in the film or remember what occurred in the scenes. 

Media homework

On this task, we were asked to analyze and compare two movies of our choice.
I decided to analyze the movie ''Mean Girls'' and ''Men in Black''  and compare them to each other.

Mean Girls is recognized as a 2007 American teen comedy film that was written by Tina fey and directed by Mark waters. Mean girls is a movie that is all about a sixteen-year-old girl named Cady Heron and her parents who arrive again to the United States after spending 16 years in a research program in Africa. Overall the movie shows her experience in an all- American high school  and what difficulties she has when she is  pressured to be a plastic just by her friends just so they know what the experience is like.

There have been indications in the movie which show that the movie is mostly for girls as the color pink has been flaunted around the movie very often which is seen stereotypical a color that girls are associated with and like. Also, pink is a color that is very feminine. The color pink is practically the color that represents the movie Mean Girls it is on the film cover and is the most common color that is worn in the film. In the movie there is even a famous quote the plastics say which is ''on Wednesdays we wear pink''.

Age group : When it comes to the age group of this movie  I believe that this movie would be relatable and found interesting to fifteen-year-olds up to eighteen-year-olds, i believe that anyone can watch mean girls however because of the language and concept of the film i believe it would be found more interesting to the younger generation as it involves relatable and girly scenes. However, it has been noted that the movie is PG13.

(The mean girls trailer)

(Picture of Cady getting her makeup done by the plastics, as you can see common pattern in the picture everything is pink or either purple which is associated with girly themes)

Men in Black is known as a 1997 American Comedy Scifi movie that was directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and produced  by Walter F. Parkes.

The movie shows two spies Agent K and his partner Agent D they try to stop a truck smuggling illegal immigrants to the United States. However, difficulties are then faced as they find out inside there is an alien in the truck disguised as human and overall they try to capture the alien. The spies are known as the best-kept secret in the universe as they work for a very wealthy funded unofficial government agency. Agent K and Agent D are the Men in Black the source of immigration services and manager of all things alien on earth.

There have been some signs that show that this movie is a movie that seems to be an attraction for mostly males as some of the scenes are faster and action packed. Although it may be a movie that is seen to be more male influenced I believe that any gender could watch Men in Black as some female could like action films and be interested in this movie as it is a comedy too. 

(Men in black trailer) 

(Spies could be seen cool to young kids as they have gadgets and wear dark glasses and get very important roles)

One of the reasons why this movie could attract guys is because young boys of the age of thirteen might find it intriguing  that these two guys have a job role of capturing aliens and being spies. Also, the thought of something supernatural in a film could excite them. It could even be that being a spy is something that some boys may aspire to be when they're older. 


Age group: When it came to the age group of this film it was said that the age group was PG13, acceptable for thirteen-year-olds to watch. However, I believe that anyone could watch men in black as its a movie that has mature scenes that could be enjoyed by people of older age.

My evaluation of Broken

Evaluate your work

 What is your Video Called?

My video is called Broken

  Who was in your group?

The people in my group were Jazire, Brenda, Oltjana and Me

  

Are you happy with it and why?

I am absolutely happy with the video because I believe that we did a very good job with the shots and editing.

    What do you think are the strengths of this video? (Technical and creative)

I feel like the strengths of the video was the different angles that we had shot. I believe that one strength was the whole concept and idea of the film and how we just came together as a group and contributed our ideas, the group dynamics was really good.When it came to the creative strengths I believe the strength was Jazire’s  acting  as she really played the role of a concerned and worried friend really well without any difficulties

    Weaknesses? (Technical and creative)

I feel like the weakness of our project  was the steadiness of the camera as it made the film look more like a student film than a professional one this was the technical weakness. The creative weakness was some bits of my acting as some scenes made it look like I was laughing rather than crying.

   What did you learn from this experience?

I learned how to work in a busy group environment and to get the job done without any difficulties, I also learned how to shoot different angles to add a more realistic effect to the movie in order to make the clips flow and be in sync.

    Is there anything you would change?

I believe I could change the way some scenes were shot and make sure the camera was very steady and to achieve this I could have used a tripod or a fig wheel in order to prevent the shakiness of the camera. I would also make sure that I didn’t appear to look like I was laughing when I was trying to appear sad when playing my role as Lisa. I would have approached it without looking like I'm laughing or next time I could hire a professional so they would be no difficulties with the role.