My Target Audience

The target audience age could be high school students or a person of any age. There is no specific gender audience for my film. The income level and geography audience could be countries that are developed because non-developed countries might not have access to or understand things such as schools, libraries or laptops - all of which are shown in my film. The education level would averagely be an elementary graduation. The person would only have to understand that the student overcomes her personal doubts - something a preschooler might not have ever struggled with. Some personal interests would be psychology, relationships, and the education system. The product will be appealing because the audience sees a driven student who overcomes a large mental road block and now they'd want to see how she maneuvers through college or the next chapter of her life. My audience - mostly the entire population - can relate to my film because they have most likely experienced something similar to doubt or a mental road block.

Feedback and Revisions

The feedback I received was to re shoot the film scenes that I am in and use an alternate font choice than the most common font choice that I had. Being in your own film or not shooting every scene of your film is against the AICE Media Studies guidelines for the submission. Using a common font choice is not a good choice because a more original or film related font will stand out to the judges. To do these revisions I will bring a replacement actor in for the student. In doing so, I will also create a new shot list. I will also review the iMovie fonts and explore other options for fonts.
The revisions I believe I need to do are choosing more original audio and making the audio fade in and out rather than being choppy. This will require using another editing software. The music will make my film feel more personal by connecting to the mood more.

Shot List

This shot is a mid-long shot. The purpose is to show the student focused completely on studying and her teacher enters from the stairs to say hi.

This mid shot shows the teacher saying hi as the student noticed and the closeness of the mid-shot gives a more happy feel than being farther away. 

This shot zooms in for a close mid-shot which shows the student going back into focus. 

This scene is a mid-long shot showing the student walking glumly through a library and not acknowledging anyone or anything, not even her teacher. The fast pace scene in contrast to the students steady stressed mood creates effect that makes her emotion stand out. 

The student emerging from the bookcases with the same mood  is important to dramatize how she's feeling. The shot is a mid-close up showing facial expressions.  

This shot is a mid-shot and is important to show the students lack of attention right now and how she doesn't recognize her teacher. 

This shot is a medium close up shot and shows the teacher noticing the student not doing her work. 

This shot is a medium close up shot and shows the students facial expression as upset or bothered and she's not doing her work. 

This medium close up shot shows the students facial expression as more positive because the teacher gave her a few intellectual words. 

This medium close up shot shows the students facial expression  and is showing how she knows her distraction is a bit far-fetched. 

Both the student and teacher look happy as the conversation ends in this medium close up shot. 

This medium shot shows the student exhaling and eliminating stress as she finishes her essay. 

The medium close up shot shows the student happy and carefree as she sends in her application. 

This medium close up shot shows the college admissions director retrieving the essay and looking unemotional.

The medium shot shows the college admission director reading her essay and remaining emotionless.

Challenging Conventions

I believe my film challenges the paranoid fiction genre because it shows an everyday person who goes through a mental difficulty or "bump in the road" with herself and conquers it. The film is casual and could occur in real life making it unlike other films in the genre which would be more gruesome or intense. The social groups represented would be high school students and teachers. The issue represented is a mental road block; meaning, the student experiences this and can't continue working on her college admissions and is distracted in studies.

My Movie - Grounded - Midterm Submission

The shots were mostly long shots where the whole body is visual. The second shot shown is mid- shot where half the body is shown to get closer to the actors during their conversation and feel the tenseness of the student. A few were over the shoulder to make you feel close to the scene. I did only these three shots to give a natural feel, as if we’re actually there. The angles were all eye level as to keep the authentic feel. The film was edited simply with one fade out because it was the turning point. The white font felt simple and colored seemed to look unconventional against the colors of my film. The font felt bold and sturdy because of its thickness and shape.

Schedule filming

My goal for my shoot is to obtain all of the needed film including pictures. The only scheduling I need to do is to make sure the time setting is day for my film. I also called the Fruitville library ahead of time to make sure I could film inside and outside the building. My filming went well. The scenes only had to be reshot a few times.

Casting my characters

College Admissions - Rico Eckert
Friend - Emme Landry
High school student - Me
The teacher exudes peace and intellectuality.
The friend provides a stable connection between her and the main character.
The main character is shown being focused - especially on her studies; however, she is too focused and doesn't pay attention to the world around her.

Scout Locations

For my film, the setting is academic and I was going for something resembling a school. My options were the Selby library, the Fruitville library, and the Gulfgate library. I chose the Fruitville library and the Selby library. I began shooting at Selby because of the stairs available for my first scene of the main character studying. I then transitioned in my film from the outside of the Selby library to the inside of the Fruitville library because the Selby library was closed inside. The Fruitville library allowed me to have inside shots and a studying shot of the main character outside. I didn't choose the Gulfgate library because the aesthetic was too modern and least appeared as a school or library.

Summary of film

The film demonstrates a teenage girl in high school who instead of living and thinking in the present, is distracted by all the other things on her mind. This is evident in the film as she constantly thinks about college and the factors leading up to college. She realizes the importance of not worrying, living in the moment, and trying her best after she writes her college admissions essay.

Script

Grounded Script: 

FADE IN: 

EXT. OUTSIDE LIBRARY - STUDENT ON STEPS - MORNING

FRIEND OF STUDENT, Same age as student and calm. 

FRIEND

Morning!

STUDENT, Focused on schoolwork.

STUDENT

Oh! Good morning. 

INT. INSIDE LIBRARY 

TEACHER, Calm, helpful and wise.

TEACHER

What’s on your mind, obviously not the assignment I gave you.

STUDENT

Nothing relating to the assignment, just college admissions and everything I have or haven’t done to prepare me.

TEACHER

Just remember to keep your admissions simple and personal. It doesn’t have to be specific things such as an achievement or event. Maybe how the process of preparing for college makes you feel. 

STUDENT

Hm, thanks. 

Fade to:

INT. STUDENTS HOME 

The student finishes typing her college admissions essay and prints. 

Dissolve to:

EXT. MAILBOX

Student puts her essay in the mail gladly and is received by the college admissions director.

COLLEGE ADMISSIONS PERSON, appears unemotional.

Cut to:

INT. COLLEGE ADMISSIONS OFFICE

The admissions person reads the essay. 

Production of film

I wrote, directed, and edited my film as well as completed all blog posts myself. I decided to do a non-group film so I could have total creative control. My actors, Emme and Rico, helped shoot a few scenes but where still directed by me. The script first started as an outline and then was given real dialogue.