EvAlUaTiON fOr ALL FOR A BOY
For my practical production, I worked with Zara to produce a short docudrama called ‘All For A Boy’. The docudrama is concentrated on a 15-year-old teenager who copes with situations many girls in the 21st century deal with, when it comes to a deciding between education and boys. We chose the title for our docudrama as ‘All For A Boy’ as it is based around a boy and how she devotes her life to him, this would grab our target audience attention and make them want to watch it as our primary audience is females, this would occur more to them as there is a female protagonists that plays the main role in the docudrama.
We both decided the job roles and responsibilities that we both undertook, as I filmed and Zara played the main role in the docudrama and we both shared responsibilities to do editing. However when it came to editing it was a very stressful time as we had difficult circumstances to deal with but we did overcome the difficulties and it did work out for the better. My role between us both was to film the whole docudrama, input on ideas and a lot of editing as there were only two of us, it was difficult but we got through it successfully.
Our opening sequence was a montage of shots of short snap shots of Zara the female protagonist in uniform, and short main bits of what will be happing in the docudrama. This was done to convey to the audience was the girl putting on makeup and getting dressed for school or is it more like her boyfriend? As it tells us its all about her life as well as seeing scenes of her and main scenes that will be in the docudrama itself. The music we use with this we think worked really well as we decided to have Crazy in love, a song which tells us the girl is wrapped up in his love and that she’s going ‘crazy’ over her boyfriend but we only used the beginning of the song which does not real use much dialogue but the title itself expresses and introduces the character.
Our docudrama we thought uses a TODROV narrative theory and Rabigers suggestion, as it tells a beginning, middle and an end, furthermore it tells a good narrative as well. As it starts with a equilibrium and it then later on creates a disequilibrium which drags the attention in to the docudrama more as this is when Zara comes to a state of mind where her boyfriend dumps her and fails her GCSE exams and then in the end we see Zara realizing her mistakes and sees it was not worth what she done was ‘All For A Boy’.
We also used the theory of PROPP when the heroine being the main protagonist Zara as she comes across many situations which are arisen in the docudrama and overcomes it by understands what she’s doing wrong. We also see binary oppositions between the two characters Zara and Saman this is used to show the characters parallel links. In addition we use dual narrative, this is where we show two stories happing at the same time, as we will see good (Zara) VS evil (Saman) when you see a bedroom scene to show the audience what they both doing at one time we shows this by using a split screen of them both when they both are meant to be doing homework but what the audience really see is one doing the right thing and completing her homework but on the other hand you see the total opposite when zara does not do her homework instead she finds giving her boyfriend 100% attention more important.
Further more we decided to interview zara’s schoolteacher, to discuss her behavior and her attitude towards educations and school, and we also put in vox popz to show what other teenager’s views were of on what they thought of ‘how boys affect girls’? As the situation is arisen over boys taking control over a teenage girls life, making them a main priortory in the girl life’s and the things they may do to stop them from getting a education which may affect them long term as they would not succeed much in life. During the interview we bold out main words such as make up, boys and fashion as he mentions have become more important then education, this would draw the target audience’s attention towards what he is saying.
In module 2 we studied ‘Bowling For Columbine’, we noticed some of the similarities between documentaries as we use main conventions as Michael Moore does such as voice over, editing styles theories such as PROPP, TODROV, he also uses binary oppositions between Michael Moore and Charlton Heston and shows himself in a good view and Charlton Heston in a bad position. As our music we used was Parraell to the scenes when zara breaks up with her boyfriend they are arguing and we put a slow song representing what the girl is feeling. After the opening sequence we have a short voice over to introduce on the main female character, as it would let the audience know exactly what is going on and narrative the documentary is, similarly Michael Moore uses the same technique.
We also use non linear technique were there is flashback on the scenes when zara is with her boyfriend, this would show how she was meant to be in school this is shown when she argues with her teacher a flashback appear of Zara and Ali together in black and white letting the audience know where she was but however making her excuse up for why she was late to his lesson, nevertheless this represented and informed how boyfriends tend to make girlfriends late for school and don’t consider it important whereas the female is wrapped up in the lust that she forgets about her main concern and devotes herself all to her boyfriend.
It may lead from negligible things like being late fore school and not competing homework but when it came to exams it becomes a different story and leads back to revising all the work learnt if your hardly in lessons and never completing work your only expected to fail, we wanted to show the audience how the girl would give everything up all for the boy but what happened when he decides to leave her, but when it happens the girl is so heart broken and upset she does not concentrate revising and on her exams what it more likely for girls leads to fail, and later on in life may reflect as not succeeding to what they may of wanted to become.
All for a boy is shown on a commercial channel (PSB), which is channel 4 and would be shown after water schedule, and when more of our target audience would most likely be watching television. The channel broadcasts documentaries and similar situations, which teenage have to face on a day-to-day basis.
In conclusion all for a boy’s purpose was to educate and inform our target audience as well as entertaining them about how teenage girls have become in today’s society and what extents they would go ‘All For A Boy’.
bY JASMIT CHOLIA
Word count: 1,216
Wednesday 9 May 2007
OMG... WE fINaLly FinIsHeD... iT tOok hArd wOrK ANd wE acTuAlLy FinIsHeD...WElLL Jus waNtED TO sAy THaNk To mR bUsH fOr STaRrIng as THe TeAcHer In THe PrOdUcTioN.. yOu KNOW He EnJOyEd sHouTiNG aT zArA loL....thAnK fOr thE yEaR 11 cLaSs ... thAnX To AaRuN aNd ThE GIrL wHicH hElPeD Us Film THrOugH BReaK... aLsO thAnX tO aLL MedIa MeNtORz AnD Mr BAbU FOr hElPInG us tHrOuGh EDiTiNG OuR pRoDuCtIoN... THaNx To AnGelA aNd mISs thOmpSoN fOR thE vOIceOvEr nArrAtIvE.. n AmRiT fOr HeLPiNg us seLeCT MUsIc ANd lAStLy bUt nOT lEasT thAnX TO sAMaN For plAyInG THe bULLy RolE...
...Jaz...
Friday 4 May 2007
Practical Production Evaluation - ‘All for a Boy’
For my practical production, I worked in a pair and produced a short Docu-drama called ‘All for a Boy.’ It represents a 15-year-old girl who is more concerned about make-up, boys and fashion rather than school, education and her future career. In order for us to relate to the docu-drama, we thought it would be good for the title to be called ’All for a Boy’ as it would relate to our primary target audience of teenage girls.
Whilst we were deciding on the roles and responsibilities, Jasmit and me agreed to share all of the tasks equally. However, as the narrative and roles became more clearer, Jasmit was more responsible of the filming and focused a lot on the camera work, but during that time I was responsible for logging shots, making the story boards and writing the script. Whilst we were editing our production, our original idea changed so much that it was difficult to keep up with the narrative but all of the new ideas fit in perfectly well compared to what we had originally thought.
The opening of our documentary is a montage sequence showing different shots of Zara (protagonist) getting ready for school. We included this so that teenage girls could relate to the protagonist. In between these shots are small previews of scenes, which happen later on in the documentary. We specifically chose shots of the protagonist with her boyfriend, her class mate Saman, (played as an opposition) her teacher, and, when she gets her results because these were all important parts in the documentary. We decided to end the montage and introduce the title ’All for a Boy’ by having the results clip because in that, Zara looks shocked and with the title coming straight after that clip would create a sense of enigma and make the audience think of what the outcome may be. We decided that we would use a song called ‘Crazy in Love’ because it is showing how Zara is ‘crazy in love’ and doesn’t care what is going on around her.
As our production is a Docu-drama means that we could not use many of the conventions that a normal documentary would contain. Although, we did try our best to include as much as possible. We used point of view shots so that the audience could see what the characters are thinking of/doing etc. We used flashbacks so that it created a sense of irony and the audience were getting a clear picture of what was really going on. A clear example can be seen as when Zara is getting in trouble from her teacher, she lies about the bus being late whereas she was with her boyfriend. We also used cinema verite style footage, when Zara is seen running away after she receives her results. This shows that this footage was real and had not been mediated, which creates a sense of authenticity and realism.
When it came to deciding how we can compare how different Zara and Saman are to each other, we decided to use Strauss’s Binary Opposition technique. When we studied ‘Bowling for Columbine’ (2002) in Module 2, Michael Moore was shown in a more positive light to Charlton Heston and that is exactly what we did with Zara and Saman. Michael Moore also used techniques like voiceovers, which we included in the beginning. We decided to open the drama like this because we can instantly see when Zara walks in late on the phone, that she will choose boys rather than education. We did not pay much attention to detail when it came to one of our scenes; after we had changed the narrative, whilst editing we noticed when Zara has to sneak into her house, her clothes were different from the night before. When she was with her boyfriend she had her coat on, but this can be easily explained by saying that because we said ‘The following morning’ the night before Zara may have left her coat at her boyfriend’s house as she had obviously stayed out.
I believe that our Docu-drama does tell a good story, because it has a beginning middle and an end. If we include Todorov’s’s narrative theory along with Rabiger’s suggestion it is clear to see that because we had a equilibrium of Zara having a negative attitude from the start but then a dis-equlibrium; when Zara receives her results and notices she has messed up ‘All for a Boy’. We also used Propp’s narrative roles, as Zara being the hero and binary oppositions showing the differences between Zara and Saman.
The differences between Saman and Zara were shown like good vs. Evil. We decided that we would make the characters do different things to make the audience aware of how they are completely opposite to each other. We have a scene where Zara is in her bedroom using the Internet, and Saman is doing her work. The audience must notice the difference between both characters surrounding environment. We paid close attention to detail during filming, because Zara’s room was pink, which would connote how ‘girly’ she was. On the other hand Saman’s room was plain and had teddy bears surrounding her, which could mean that she has a simple life but has a warm heart.
All for a Boy will be shown on a public service broadcaster (PSB) and a commercial channel such as channel 4. We thought this would be a suitable place to show our docu drama because a lot of documentaries are shown on this channel already. We decided it was best to create a docu-drama rather than a short film because we have followed well, such as ‘Big Brother,’ which is one of channel 4’s own reality TV shows. Some of these techniques included face-to-face interviews; In big brother there are diary room entries when the house mates get to talk to the camera, in our documentary Zara is seen speaking to the camera (when she is running away after her exam results) which shows that she knows her life is being followed up by people.
Overall, All for a Boy was produced so that it can educate our primary target of girls that they should focus on what is important right now; their education, everything else comes after that. It will also teach our secondary audience of boys, how easily girls get attached to them and how they should also focus on education at this point of their lives. This was represented through Zara failing her exams because of this boy. Finally, I feel that our production did tell a good story and will definitely entertain the audience just as we planned.
By Zara Sayed Word Count: 1128
For my practical production, I worked in a pair and produced a short Docu-drama called ‘All for a Boy.’ It represents a 15-year-old girl who is more concerned about make-up, boys and fashion rather than school, education and her future career. In order for us to relate to the docu-drama, we thought it would be good for the title to be called ’All for a Boy’ as it would relate to our primary target audience of teenage girls.
Whilst we were deciding on the roles and responsibilities, Jasmit and me agreed to share all of the tasks equally. However, as the narrative and roles became more clearer, Jasmit was more responsible of the filming and focused a lot on the camera work, but during that time I was responsible for logging shots, making the story boards and writing the script. Whilst we were editing our production, our original idea changed so much that it was difficult to keep up with the narrative but all of the new ideas fit in perfectly well compared to what we had originally thought.
The opening of our documentary is a montage sequence showing different shots of Zara (protagonist) getting ready for school. We included this so that teenage girls could relate to the protagonist. In between these shots are small previews of scenes, which happen later on in the documentary. We specifically chose shots of the protagonist with her boyfriend, her class mate Saman, (played as an opposition) her teacher, and, when she gets her results because these were all important parts in the documentary. We decided to end the montage and introduce the title ’All for a Boy’ by having the results clip because in that, Zara looks shocked and with the title coming straight after that clip would create a sense of enigma and make the audience think of what the outcome may be. We decided that we would use a song called ‘Crazy in Love’ because it is showing how Zara is ‘crazy in love’ and doesn’t care what is going on around her.
As our production is a Docu-drama means that we could not use many of the conventions that a normal documentary would contain. Although, we did try our best to include as much as possible. We used point of view shots so that the audience could see what the characters are thinking of/doing etc. We used flashbacks so that it created a sense of irony and the audience were getting a clear picture of what was really going on. A clear example can be seen as when Zara is getting in trouble from her teacher, she lies about the bus being late whereas she was with her boyfriend. We also used cinema verite style footage, when Zara is seen running away after she receives her results. This shows that this footage was real and had not been mediated, which creates a sense of authenticity and realism.
When it came to deciding how we can compare how different Zara and Saman are to each other, we decided to use Strauss’s Binary Opposition technique. When we studied ‘Bowling for Columbine’ (2002) in Module 2, Michael Moore was shown in a more positive light to Charlton Heston and that is exactly what we did with Zara and Saman. Michael Moore also used techniques like voiceovers, which we included in the beginning. We decided to open the drama like this because we can instantly see when Zara walks in late on the phone, that she will choose boys rather than education. We did not pay much attention to detail when it came to one of our scenes; after we had changed the narrative, whilst editing we noticed when Zara has to sneak into her house, her clothes were different from the night before. When she was with her boyfriend she had her coat on, but this can be easily explained by saying that because we said ‘The following morning’ the night before Zara may have left her coat at her boyfriend’s house as she had obviously stayed out.
I believe that our Docu-drama does tell a good story, because it has a beginning middle and an end. If we include Todorov’s’s narrative theory along with Rabiger’s suggestion it is clear to see that because we had a equilibrium of Zara having a negative attitude from the start but then a dis-equlibrium; when Zara receives her results and notices she has messed up ‘All for a Boy’. We also used Propp’s narrative roles, as Zara being the hero and binary oppositions showing the differences between Zara and Saman.
The differences between Saman and Zara were shown like good vs. Evil. We decided that we would make the characters do different things to make the audience aware of how they are completely opposite to each other. We have a scene where Zara is in her bedroom using the Internet, and Saman is doing her work. The audience must notice the difference between both characters surrounding environment. We paid close attention to detail during filming, because Zara’s room was pink, which would connote how ‘girly’ she was. On the other hand Saman’s room was plain and had teddy bears surrounding her, which could mean that she has a simple life but has a warm heart.
All for a Boy will be shown on a public service broadcaster (PSB) and a commercial channel such as channel 4. We thought this would be a suitable place to show our docu drama because a lot of documentaries are shown on this channel already. We decided it was best to create a docu-drama rather than a short film because we have followed well, such as ‘Big Brother,’ which is one of channel 4’s own reality TV shows. Some of these techniques included face-to-face interviews; In big brother there are diary room entries when the house mates get to talk to the camera, in our documentary Zara is seen speaking to the camera (when she is running away after her exam results) which shows that she knows her life is being followed up by people.
Overall, All for a Boy was produced so that it can educate our primary target of girls that they should focus on what is important right now; their education, everything else comes after that. It will also teach our secondary audience of boys, how easily girls get attached to them and how they should also focus on education at this point of their lives. This was represented through Zara failing her exams because of this boy. Finally, I feel that our production did tell a good story and will definitely entertain the audience just as we planned.
By Zara Sayed Word Count: 1128
FinaLLy FiNiShed..Thanks To EvEryOnE hU hElPed uS oUt..tHanks 2 *mR bUSh* fOR gIVInG uS 2 eXTrA wEEkZ..And BeiNg The tEachEr WhOoOo HaD tO sHoUt At *MEE*!! tHaNx To All Of The YeAr 11 ClAss wHo wErE In ThE dAy We FiLmED OuR fIrSt ScEnE..EsPeCiAllY 2 *AaRuN* AnD *ThE GiRL* Hu StAyeD iN tHe cLaSsRoOoM 2 heLp Us WhEn ThEy sHoUlDvE BeEn On THeIr BrEaK..tHAnKZ 2 The *MedIa MenToRz* FoR HelPiNG uS wOrK tHru ThE pOsT-PrOduCtIoN, eSpEcIaLLy *RaMnEet* wIth heLPiNG uS ChoOosEe OuR FiNAL sOnG, *mR BaBu* FoR PuTtIN uP wIth uS!! *mIsS tHoMpsOn* FoR dOiNG tHe IdEnt VoIcEoVER aNd *AngeLa* FoR oUr NaRraTIvE VOiCeOvEr!! *AmRit* FoR HeLpINg Us WiTh OuR mUsIc SeLeCtIoN And *SaMaN* fOr lEtTIN mE bUllY HeR :P
HAd sOOoO MuCH fUn maKIng All For a Boy..And HavE LeArNt A loT..gOiNG tO lEaVE wItH SooOo MuCh MeMoRiEs!! =D =D =D
HAd sOOoO MuCH fUn maKIng All For a Boy..And HavE LeArNt A loT..gOiNG tO lEaVE wItH SooOo MuCh MeMoRiEs!! =D =D =D
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