Planning - Title Ideas and Audience Feedback.

With our filming script finished and the production of our supporting media (poster and website) underway, our group now has a very clear vision of our film and its message, and are able to start discussing potential titles.

We are all agreed that our main theme is our protagonist's struggles with her weight as she pursues entering the modeling industry, and that this should be reflected within our title. This lead us to list various "keywords" associated with extreme dieting and modeling, such as; weight, size, measure, thin, figure, image, face, perception, beauty. From these we were able to draw up three potential names, all of which we would be content to attach to our film. These are; Thinspiration, Extreme Measures, and Weighted Decision.

• Thinspiration is drawn from our protagonist's initial "inspiration" to start modeling and, as a result, extreme dieting. We feel that it highlights her obsessive nature about pursuing both. It is also a reference to the real world pro-anorexia websites which bring together communities of extreme dieters to share tips and images of their "thinspirations"; often the thinnest of models.

• Extreme Measures is drawn from our protagonist's determination and will to do whatever it takes to succeed. The "Extreme" portion of the title is a direct reference to her extreme dieting, and the "Measures" references her reasons for her actions; to fit into the fashion industry's small standard sample size. The "Measures" portion would also reflect the image on our poster, should we chose to use one of the designs featuring a tape measure.

• Weighted Decision is drawn from the drastic decisions our protagonist makes in her pursuit to be a model; in particular her decision to follow an extreme diet to drop her weight. We feel that the title highlights just how drastic a decision this is, with the "Weighted" portion of the title not only being a reference to what the decision is concerning, but also the impacts it has on her life.

As we have three potential titles which we, as a group, feel could all work for our film, we turned to our potential audiences for feedback about which they feel is the most intriguing; the one which would be most likely to draw them to see our film, which, of course, is our main objective.

I made a basic survey for us to use to collect the opinions of our potential audience, and also to get to know a little bit about them. For example, we know that our target audience is females 18-34, so by including those surveyed's genders and ages in with their feedback, we can get an idea of which title is the most popular overall, and which is the most popular with our target market.

Production - Storyboard.

Production - Final Plot.

Our group has now settled on our final plot for the full theme. After each of us writing one based on the themes and their links that we had discussed before, we came together to compare them; and chose Phoebe's as the one that we will use. Both Ollie and I inputed a few ideas from our own plots which were incorporated within Phoebe's;

"An 18 year old girl has been influenced by magazines and music videos to become a model. She becomes inspired by a certain photographer and model and starts looking up modelling agencies on the internet to start her modelling career. She finds a website that requires a portfolio of photos so she asks her long term boyfriend to take the pictures for her. He knows how hard it is to get into a modelling industry but is supportive enough to take the pictures; he doesn’t quite take her seriously but likes the novelty of having a model as a girlfriend.
The pictures are sent off to the agency she waits anxiously for 3 weeks before she eventually gets a reply saying she is not the right build and the agency’s models are a size 6 or lower, this affects her confidence but she is determined and starts to diet and go to the gym. From a size 12 she gets down to a size 10 in a month, she gives up through frustration and decides that food is the problem so starts to eat less and less. Her family notice and confront her, when she tells them they don’t support her and they tell her to concentrate on something more productive because modelling is unhealthy and won’t give her a future. She refuses to give up on her dream and looks to the internet for more answers.
She comes across an online chat service and meets a girl who tells her she has recently got into an agency and is working as a model. The main girl is in awe of the chat girl and asks for advice, the chat girl tells her that stopping eating only bloats her and that eating then bringing it back up makes you slimmer. The main girl doesn’t like this idea but as she has stopped dieting and is having to eat normally in front of her parents it has been harder for her to lose weight. She starts being sick after meals and she notices she has gone down to a size 8 in less than a month. However, this affects her mood and her boyfriend notices their relationship suffering as she keeps more secrets from him and chooses to exercise rather than meet up with him. He goes round to her house without her knowing and is let into her room, he sees her magazines all around the room and then notices a log she has kept showing how many calories she may have digested during the day and the amount of hours she is been exercising. He confronts her and she shouts at him telling him to keep out of her business, he tells her he is worried about her and that she has to stop and he won’t let her carry on. He convinces her to start eating again. The main girl confides in her online friend telling her she cannot lose weight because of the people around her. The girl tells her that the other option is cocaine and gives her details of a dealer in her area. It takes a couple of days before she makes the decision to go buy some cocaine she meets the dealer and nervously tells him why she is buying it he replies telling her she is really attractive and will definitely make it, this encourages her further to reach her modelling career. She holds off using the drug for a long time as she knows it is wrong but is torn between her passion for modelling and what is the best thing to do. She makes a line of the drug on her desk and goes to snort it the camera focuses on surrounded by pictures of her friends and boyfriend.
Her boyfriend is then seen reading an email saying he has been offered a job in London; he is excited but concerned for his girlfriend it then cuts to her weighing herself and looking at herself in the mirror sucking in her stomach. She then has an email from an agency arranging a meeting to have some practise shots in London she is very excited. Both boyfriend and girlfriend travel to London together however the girl tells her boyfriend she will be shopping while the boyfriend has told her he will be meeting up with some old friends. It then double screens to the boyfriend shaking meeting a man for his meeting and the girl meeting the photographer it then shows the boyfriend sitting down at a desk and the girl standing in front of a backdrop. Fades to blackout still split screen shows the boyfriend leaving smiling and the girl leaving looking worried and upset.
They both meet in the car and hardly speak to each other. Blackout. Girl is seen on the floor of her room crying with an envelope from the agency on the floor in front of her. Her boyfriend walks in also with an envelope in his hand and smiling. He sees her crying on the floor and runs to her he asks what is wrong but she says nothing, he takes the envelope off the floor and opens it, she grabs it shocking her boyfriend who then starts to fight for the envelope there is a struggle and he manages to open the envelope and see the photos inside, he is shocked and destroyed at the nude images of her obviously looking uncomfortable. He tells her she has gone too far and that he was worried to tell her he had got a job in London and he was moving away but that her decision had made his a lot easier, he storms out the room and the girl is left to cry on the floor.
 The main girl to talk to her online friend and continues to take cocaine and get skinnier. Her parents notice but her relationship with them is ruined she no longer listens to them and shuts herself in her room. She is a little more cautious about other agency’s but she is getting more offers than ever and now sees her 1st shoot as experience her attitude has changed and she becomes numb. She is seen going to another photo shoot involving other people her dressing room consists of two other women who hardly to talk each other, she goes over to talk thinking because they are modelling they have something in common, they look her up and down laugh and ignore her. So the girl goes to the toilets and snorts more cocaine showing she has become reliant on cocaine for her emotions also. The shoot is about girls in their pyjamas having a pillow fight due to her unsuccessful attempt to talk to the girls she finds it hard to act as if she knows them and is having fun, she is thrown off the photo shoot which makes her extremely angry she goes back to her room rips up all her magazines but stops at one from her favourite photographer.
She is seen having many pictures taken but none are successful she realises that there is more to modelling than being skinny there is technique as well she starts taking more cocaine and losing more weight. She turns up to a photo shoot looking tired and ill she is taken to make up and the woman tells her she looks awful the girl snaps at her and the woman refuses to do her make up telling her she will never get anywhere with such a bad attitude. The girl does her own make up and goes in for the shoot he tells her she looks fabulous and takes the photos enthusiastically telling her she is exactly what they wanted.  After shaking hands with the photographer she leaves happy, a week after the photos are printed in magazines and on billboards as the girl who is in need of mental help new makeup and products and even one showing her as a woman suffering from a sexual disease reading ‘if you could see aids would you still take her home?’. She is horrified to see the pictures everywhere her parents throw her out of the house and she is left to live on the streets.
 Her boyfriend is then seen leaving a building in a suit and tie he is catching a bus when he gets given a leaflet by a girl wearing a t-shirt saying aids awareness it has his girlfriend’s picture of her looking terrible. He instantly starts to worry about her and tries to call her there is no answer. He then calls her parents they answer but tell him they do not know who the girl is, this worries him more and he sets off to try and find her.
While walking through the subway to her house he sees a homeless person on the floor he walks straight past them and she looks up after him it’s the girl. He tires all night to find her but fails. He walks back the homeless person is missing but as he gets to his car he sees the homeless person standing by his car, he then realises it is his girlfriend. He runs up to her as she faints into his arms he starts to cry and there is a blackout. She is seen in a hospital environment with her boyfriend by her side she wakes up and he starts to tell her that her organs had started to fail she may have brain damage from lack of food and the cocaine use he tells her he never wanted to leave her on her own but he lost it and he will be there from now on. She spends days and days in hospital recovering and her boyfriend is there every day. Her parents eventually turn up her mum in tears and they are happy she is getting better. She says she still wants to model but she has learnt from her lesson, it then cuts to a couple of years on both her and her boyfriend are hand in hand looking up at a billboard for a lead brand with the girl on it."

Of course, this is a plot for a full theme, and we are creating a trailer. Hence, our group sat together and worked through the plot, scrutinizing it and considering which scenes are best for us to show in our trailer. Conventions of trailers for all genres command that a trailer present the film's most important themes without giving too much of the story away. Hence, we wanted to work in a chronological order as our film's themes interconnect and flow into one another, but we had to pick a point at which to stop our telling of the story.

Below are a few snapshots of the process we went through; highlighting key scenes and annotating certain with ideas that struck us of how we could manipulate them to show just enough but not too much.

With the scenes that we will be using in our trailer selected, we will now have to do some more focussed research into how trailers for films of our genre are constructed and write a "trailer script" for the construction of our own trailer.

Planning - Poster Design Ideas.

I have started drafting a few ideas for our poster's potential layout. All three are very basic sketches, as their primary purpose is for our group to gain an idea of the composition options for our poster, and for us to start planning which one would be best to promote our film and how we could shoot and edit it.

This first option shows our an extreme close up of our protagonist's face and neckline, with her being "strangled" by a tape measure. This composition suggests the pressure that our protagonist is under as an aspiring model, in particular due to weight issues. However, it could have more of a horror genre connotation.

This second option is also an extreme close up, this time of our protagonist's waist, and also utilizes a tape measure as the main focal point. I have used the tape measure again as I think it is a good symbol for our film; weight issues will be prevalent, and will be the cause of our protagonist's downward spiral into other issues. Setting it against her waist rather than her face took away the horror connotation the previous poster could have had, and also stops the audience from being distracted between two focal points (the actress's face and the tape measure). With the former poster, we would have had no visible clothing on our model, as only her face and shoulders were on view, similar to the "The Beautiful Life: TBL" nude shots, however with this poster we would have her in simple blue jeans and a white vest (which we would offset the title); still keeping her a blank canvas, vulnerable to corruption.

This third option takes a different direction to the previous two posters. We have our protagonist dressed in the same blue jeans and white vest as in the former poster, for the same reasons, but we have her in a long shot showing her full body rather than an extreme close up of a specific area. In the foreground, there is a camera showing a retouched, clichéd "model-esque" image of our protagonist, in full hair and make up, on the display screen. The camera is pointing towards the "real" depiction of our protagonist; a very vulnerable looking girl, in plain clothes, with invisible hair and make up. The use of composition and contrasts in styling are to symbolize our film's exposing the real model, not the one the camera creates. However, unlike the former two drafts with their use of the tape measure, this poster does not pick up on particular themes or the downward spiral our protagonist will experience, and the more detailed layout may be more difficult for passing audiences to read messages from.

Planning - Plot Ideas.

Having completed a lot of research towards our film's plot, our group now feels at a stage where we can start to piece our plot together. To start, we looked at the themes which have arisen from our research; a development on the basic themes of our genre (for the general aesthetic of our film/trailer) which I mind mapped for us before.
As we did find that mind map so useful for organizing our ideas, I have produced another with these new, plot-centric themes, and included straight line links between each theme to show where we could build story lines. (Made with Photo Layout on the Apple iPad.)

Our themes are quite serious, as we are aiming to show the darker side to the modeling industry. We are targeting a mainstream female 18-34 demographic, not just the fashion obsessed niche, hence have chosen themes that are both associated with the fashion/modeling industry and relatable for our audience; such as eating disorders, relationship issues, and feelings of naivety and vulnerability.

With this as our basis to work from, each member of our group is now going to work independently on a plot line that represents all of these themes and works with the connections drawn between them. We will then come together, compare plots, choose one as the "main", and incorporate a few strong ideas from the other two to finalize it.

Planning - Mood Board.

As our group have now settled on our target demographic and the theme for our film/trailer, we have started looking at various sources of media for ideas and inspirational content that will be useful to us during our production. I have looked at examples from three forms; advertising, television, and film, to gain as much information about how our genre should be targeted as possible. As a group, we have been looking at the print media that our demographic would be interested in reading; being a fashion conscious female between the ages of 18-34, these have included the "younger" fashion and lifestyle magazines such as Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Elle, and Teen Vogue. Whilst we have studied traditional Vogue and other higher brow fashion publications such as Harper's Bazaar and Tatler, this has been more so for detailed insight into the fashion and modeling industry rather than for insight into how to target our audience. The more traditional, high brow print fashion publications tend to target a wealthier, more intellectual, fashion niche, whereas, producing a film for general release, we need to be more open.
Below is the mood board that I have created for us to use, based upon the group's and my own research. Our target demographic being quite social media and fashion conscious, I have been using the internet (fashion blogs in particular) and magazines as my primary source for content. I constructed the mood board using Adobe's Photoshop CS5.

I have attempted to represent the direction that we, as a group, see our film going in. I have used an organized, tiled layout with all of our themes, major and minor, mixed in with each other to be able to glean a clear idea of what sort of image we and our film/trailer will be depicting.

Planning - Mind Map and Theme Analysis.

Above is a visual mind map that I created, showing the themes which were prevalent in the television networks/shows and films targeted towards our target demographic that I researched. The themes which were the most popular (i.e. appeared in five or more examples) are in red.

Most popular themes:

Fashion - Somewhat unsurprising, fashion is a common theme in media targeted towards females 18-34. Television shows and films have impacted the fashion industry for decades; from ABC's Dynasty in the 1980s, to HBO's Sex and the City in the 1990s (for the later duration of the series' run, costume designer Patricia Field was considered by many as one of the most influential figures in fashion), to the CW's Gossip Girl today (Gossip Girl themed clothing collections have been designed for both Target in the USA and Miss Selfridge in the UK, and costume designer Eric Daman has published an acclaimed style book).

Cosmopolitan - Many of the most popular shows and films targeted towards females 18-34 are situated in large cities, such as New York and London. This could be because cities tend to be more populated with young females; according to areaconnect.com, 53% of NYC residents are female, and the median age is 34. The world's major cities are also often known as "fashion capitals", and as the fashion theme summary above reveals, females 18-34 are targeted with fashion related text as much as possible in the media. Another reason for cities being used so often could also be purely because the wealth of opportunities big cities offer open up more story lines for producers.

Wealth - The main characters of several shows and films targeted towards females 18-34 are either wealthy or surrounded by wealth. This could be cause wealth enables a realistic tie between several popular themes targeted towards females 18-34 (e.g. to create verisimilitude, wealthier characters are dressed better and live in more expensive areas, such as large cities), but could also be because wealth creates a life so glamorous that it appears almost unrealistic to average viewers who watch the show for escapism.

Relationships - As females are at their most adventurous in regards to relationships between the ages of 18-34, it's unsurprising that relationships are a major theme within media targeted towards females 18-34. It provides an aspect to a show/film that is relatable to the audience, regardless of the show/film's main theme(s).

Beauty - Most of the actors cast in shows/films targeted towards females 18-34 are attractive; a common opinion, and something that is often criticized. One major example which should contrast with this opinion is ABC's popular show Ugly Betty, in which the main character is (as the show's title suggests) unattractive. However, the characters she is surrounded by are attractive, she works at a top fashion magazine, and the show deals with how she doesn't fit in due to her looks. Despite it being speculated that the use of predominately attractive people within the media is to blame for many of the insecurities affecting females 18-34, they are still bombarded with them and still consume the media that they appear in. Perhaps it is due to the "escapism" aspect to consuming media, or perhaps it is due just to females finding attractive people more aesthetically pleasing and therefore pleasant to watch.

Insecurities - In the above theme summary I mentioned how media is considered in part responsible for insecurities, and statistics do prove that insecurities are at their most common within younger females. Therefore, the application of insecurities to characters within media targeted towards females 18-34 could be to make them more relatable to audiences. It could also be to make a character more multi-faceted, adding more dimensions to their personality and making them feel more realistic.

Modeling - Considering that fashion, cosmopolitan, and beauty are all common themes targeted towards females 18/34 in the media, it is unsurprising that modeling is another as it incorporates all three. It is also considered quite a glamorous theme, hence appeals to females as an "escapist"/"dream" career to watch.

By looking through and analyzing the most popular themes targeted towards our target demographic, our group has settled on the theme that we will base our film/trailer around. We have chosen modeling, as it incorporates many other themes which are popular with our target demographic, and is open to incorporate more less common themes which would create an interesting and appealing storyline. Working with this theme will also allow our group to combine our research for the practical side to our media studies with the theoretical side, in which we are studying representations of women.

Planning - Genre, Target Market, and Theme Ideas.

The group has been thinking about which genre of film we would like to produce a trailer for.

Last year, we produced a two minute film for the horror/thriller genre, with a vampire theme. We have decided that we would like to work with a very different genre this year, as we feel that we exhausted our ideas for the horror genre last year and would like experience working with a new genre.

We first discussed which genres are possible for us to produce to a standard that we would be satisfied with. For example, we feel that we couldn't work with the action genre as an action film/trailer would require a budget and level of professional special effects skills far above what we can offer to make it realistic and competitive with other action films on the market. We decided that either a romantic comedy or drama film would be the best for us to produce a trailer for, because both genres are "realistic" in nature, hence require less of a budget and professional special effects skills for us to create a high level of verisimilitude.
Out of the two, we settled on the drama genre, as after much discussion we agreed that low-budget romantic comedies often look, well, low budget. Working with a more serious genre will enable us to steer clear from potential "cheesiness".

With the genre we will be working within settled upon, we started thinking about more specific themes that we could work with. To be able to settle on a theme, the first thing for us to discuss which market we would like to target.
According to New York Magazine, the most profitable market for the film industry to target is the female market, as females not only choose the films that they would like to see alone, but those in relationships also tend to choose the film the couple sees.
The 18-34 year old market is often regarded as the "coveted" market, as younger people tend to be more media conscious, hence follow media news and film releases more so than older markets and frequent the cinema.
Therefore, our group decided that we should be discussing themes which target the females 18-34 market. We have started researching popular film and television products which target the same market, and will be producing a mind map for us to organize our ideas and visualize which themes will offer us the most to work with.

Research - Key Conventions of a Film Trailer.

As my group and I have decided to undertake the "Trailer" task, I have started thinking about the key conventions of a trailer to help me with the planning/making of our trailer.

• Inform and intrigue.
• Feature key plot lines.
• Appeal to target audience.
• Quick cuts between shots to sustain interest.
• Build suspense/storyline with trailer left on a cliffhanger.
• Introduce other themes to attempt to capture extra audiences.

The most important thing for a trailer to do is to inform the audience about the upcoming film, and to intrigue the audience to compel them to see the film. This can be done by featuring the film's key plot lines in a way which appeal to the target audience; specifically showing the scenes which will be the most impressive and/or intriguing.
Also, cutting quickly between the scenes in the trailer ensures that not too much of them is given away, which would spoil the film, and also that the audience, who would have a lower attention span when passively watching a trailer as opposed to when focussing on a film, will retain interest as new scenes and plots are revealed to them in a short space of time.
Building a storyline with a trailer in a suspenseful manner will intrigue the audience, and then leaving it on a cliffhanger will compel them to see the film as they wonder how what they have seen will come together and conclude.
Introducing other themes (e.g. the love life of the main character) can help to appeal the film to extra audiences outside of the target audience, and assure that the film won't be targeting too small a niche in the market.

A2 Coursework.

Having completed my AS Level in Media Studies, I am now moving onto the A2 portion of my A Level.

My group and I have chosen to undertake the "Trailer" task:

"A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with two of the following three options:

a website homepage for the film;

a magazine front cover, feature the film;

a poster for the film."

We will be producing a two minute trailer for a film, along with a magazine cover to feature the film's release and an advertising poster.