Evaluation of Street Crush

Laura Fredericks

Group 1: Laura Fredericks, Reena Chadee, Robyn Oliver and April Mckay
In what ways does your film use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of media products?

 The teen drama usually follows that of American pop culture when abiding by the
conventions.

The conventions normally include: Alcohol, illegal substances, violence, high school, parties,
intimate relationships, social groups and cliques.

 In our two minute opening we thought we would use the most familiar conventions that were
relationships, social groups and cliques. By doing this, the audience would straight away relate
these conventions to our particular genre.

 The teen drama genre also at times uses binary oppositions such as : Good vs. Evil and Law
vs. Crime.
 Similarly, our movie uses the binary opposition of Good vs. Evil.

 This is because the attitudes within the love triangle were central to the storyline,
however, if law was somehow introduced to the plot it would act as a distraction.
 How does your film represent particular social groups?

 We decided to represent teenagers who were part of a

gang (gang culture) and a promiscuous teenage girl. We used a
basketball court to represent the teenage gang and we used
an archetypal girls bedroom to represent the teenage girl.
 We used ethnic minorities to help represent the gang
members as usually ethnic minorities are part of gangs
compared to indigenous people.
 We put exaggerated eye make up on the teenage girl as
this could help to represent promiscuity as females tend to
wear an extended amount of make up to get more attention
from the opposite sex. Also, we made the gang members wear
noticeable baggy clothes such as tracksuits with their
‘hoodies’ up as this helped to represent them as trouble
makers as ‘hoodies’ are banned from many areas such as
shops, which help to protect their identity.
What role does mise-en-scene, acting, dialogue, music
and style of camera work play in the creation of realism?
 In our film we did not use dialogue as we wanted the
audience to focus on the characters actions so they could
relate to them.
 Our film contains a few close ups to help the audience
realise what characters were connected to one another in the
film.
 The music in our film helps to represent the teenagers as
it causes a tense atmosphere which could help the audience
to foreshadow and think that there is build up to a tense
situation. Thus, representing teenagers to be troublesome.
The mise-en-scene is relatively simple however effective as
this area was easily dominated by our characters, which
shows the thug like culture.
 What kind of media institution might distribute your film and why?

 Distributor- Our group would say that the UK Film Council would be suitable to distribute
our film because films that are produced by this company usually have cultural aspects and
our film contains gang culture.

 Exhibitor- I would suggest that our film would be exhibited in known cinemas such as
Odeon, Empire and VU which is the largest chain of cinemas in Europe.

 Retailer- I would say that our film should be able to be bought in entertainment stores
such as HMV, Zavvi, Blockbusters and Virgin.

 Regulators- The BBFC would have to rate our film as our film may contain gang culture and
violence plus it is aimed at teenagers/young adults, therefore it would contain certain scenes
that would be unsuitable for children. We suggested that our film would be best rated as a
15.
Who would be the audience for your media product?

 Many people are familiar with the concepts of a teen drama,

however, our research revealed that that aged 15-25 enjoyed
watched teen drama movies the most, hence the audience
mainly being those aged between 15-25.

 Also, as our final product was directed, planned, edited and

recorded by teenagers our group knew what would interest the
teenage audience, so we included aspects of our genre that
would grab their attention more than any other age group.

 Plus, as our audience was in the same age range it was easier
for our group to get feedback on what would need to be
changed or altered in our final product as our audience were
easy for us to get in contact with.

However, the audience would need to be that of 15-25

because the film consists of violence and strong language.
How did you address/attract your audience?

 The group as a whole decided to name the film ‘Street

Crush’, and we agreed that it attracted teenagers as we
associate the word ‘street’ with gangs and troublesome
teenagers. Therefore the title of our film helped us to
attract our audience.
 We also tried to attract our teenage audience by
having our establishing shot in the basketball courts as
this is where people often see teenage boy gangs hanging
out. The establishing shot also shows that the area is
somewhat run down. This we thought would attract our
chosen audience.
 Also, the close up of the accessories such as perfume
and make up that was situated in the teenage girls room
helped to attract the teenage audience as the
accessories would apply to them.
 The appearance of the characters used was something
that definitely attracted the teenage audience because
they were of the same age, plus the style of how the
were dressed was of stereotypical teenagers.
 The personalities of the characters were not released
through dialogue, only by actions, so by showing how the
characters were acting like typical teenagers helped to
address the audience more so, as they would do similar
things that they would.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of
constructing your film?

 By constructing our film, we learnt

how to use new technologies that we did
not know how to use before. For
example, we discovered how to use a
camcorder and tripod. We found out
that the tripod was a vital piece of
equipment for constructing our film as
some of the shots, such as the
establishing shot, would not have been
able to have taken place. Plus the tripod
helped to regulate the continuity in our
camera angles/shots/movement.

 We also learnt how to

use Imovie on the Mac
computers. We learnt how
to add transitions, how to
edit sound and add music,
we even learnt how to crop
and alter the length of each
scene.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have
learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

 I feel that the preliminary task has taught the group how to make our
shooting techniques the best as possible because now we know how to
This diagram shows the
make the best of shot reverse shots and our environment. It has axis between two
obviously also taught us when to use the 180 degree rule. characters and the 180
degree arc on which
 The more we moved on to making our final product, the more we used cameras may be
positioned (green). When
the correct shooting techniques, at times it was even unconsciously from cutting from the green
where it came so natural to us. We knew how to make the shots look at arc to the red,
characters must switch
their absolute best. placed on the screen.
 Also, by doing the preliminary task, this helped us to get an idea of
how to use the Mac computers and the programme Imovie. Without
having the preliminary task as a warm up, we as a group would have found
it a tad harder to get to grips with Imovie. By doing the preliminary task
we learnt how to cut, trim, show continuity in terms of editing, adding
and removing sound and how to use and add in the transitions.
 Another thing that the preliminary task helped us with was getting to
use the camcorder and tripod. By having a preliminary task, we learnt
how to get the different angles we wanted in time for our final product.
 Overall, I do believe that the preliminary task helped to give our
group a head start with all the equipment so that our final product was
able to have a better outcome than our preliminary task. By the results,
I’m sure many people would also agree that our final product is more
professional than our preliminary task.