Rushmore - Opening Montage.

Is Max a stereotypical teenager? Explain your answer using only the montage sequence. Refer explicitly to mise-en-scene.


A stereotypical American teenager is thought to be rude, disrespectful, lazy and someone who doesn't care about anything or anyone else. They don't want to do anything for anyone and don't really care about what their actions will mean for the future. Most American teenagers are patriotic to their country as well, because that's how they've been brought up. The opening montage of Rushmore, set in an all boys, American, private school, shows the main character, Max, to be a rather unique teenager.

The first part of the montage starts with a book that is decorated with bees on the front cover. This signifies to me that Max is always busy, like a 'busy bee', and that he's proud of the fact because the bees look like they've been added to the cover, presumably by himself. The book is then opened to show the first page which has a black and white picture of Max, like one you'd see in a newspaper, wearing a beret and possibly holding a cigarette, complete with the caption 'Editor-in-chief'. This makes me think that Max is not a stereotypical teenager because even teenagers interested in journalism, or just writing for their school magazine, are not likely to wear a beret and be holding a cigarette in a picture of themselves so that they seem more mature/older than they are.

In the next school activity Max is shown to be the President of the French Club. In the shot Max is sitting in the front row, right in the middle, wearing a red beret (which might possibly be his own beret as the other students are wearing different ones), with a sash designed to look like the French flag and a statue of the Eiffel Tower. This is not like a stereotypical American teenager because Max is shown to be slightly obsessed with France, however you would expect an American teenager to be proud of and love their own country over any other, but Max seems to want to belong to France and doesn't seem to have any patriotic tendencies towards America at all. He also chooses to represent Russia in the Model United Nations, instead of America.

Also Max proves to not be a stereotypical teenager when the montage says that he is the Vice-President of the Stamp and Coin Club. Stamp and coin collecting is considered to be something that older people do, such as pensioners, and not something that would interest teenagers.

However Max takes part in the track and field events at the school, which puts him in the frame of a stereotypical teenager, because teenagers are supposed to be interested in sports and American high schools focus a lot on their school teams. Therefore because Max takes part in the school sports it makes him seem more 'normal' for a teenager. Though Max is still shown to be different from the stereotypical teenager with regards to his school team because he is the manager of the team, rather than a team player as you would expect him to be. This shows Max's desire for control and makes him seem more mature than the usual teenager.

To conclude Max is portrayed in the opening montage to be a little different from the average American teenager because he has different hobbies and interests, and because he has joined so many school activities, whereas most teenagers would only join one or two at most. Also because he is either the founder, captain or president or these clubs it cuts him off from other teenagers because they just go to have fun, whilst Max goes so that he has power/control. He does take part in some ordinary teenage activities, such as the Yankee Racers, but most of the activities he belongs to are consider to be either a little eccentric or for people of a much older age. I believe that most teenagers would see Max as someone to make fun of because he doesn't seem to fit in anywhere, and is seen as an outcast as he is not the sort of person teenagers would want to associate themselves with.

Liana :)

Re-presentation.

The way the media present 'something' as though it were real, it is not real but merely a copy of something. - Re-presentation.

Signs and Signifiers

1. Something which communicates a piece of information. - sign.

2. Multiple 'idea' or 'feelings' behind a sign. - signifier.

3. All signs belong to cultures.

 

Gatekeepers - the people in charge of what we see.

 

Ideology - a belief system.

Rushmore

Mise en scene: camera angles, props, setting, lighting and acting.

1. Where is the film set?
Starts off in a classroom in an all boys school called Rushmore, and then the setting changes to a church/chapel, showing that the school could be religious.

2. Describe the main characters personality
Geeky, appears to be good at maths, seems to be idolized, which doesn't seem to be true as it was all a dream, the character is more likely to want to be appreciated by his fellow pupils/wants friends his own age.

3. What is he excellent at?
Maths

4. How do other view him?
In the dream they consider him to be a hero, but in reality he's quite lonely.

5. How was he dressed?
In the full uniform, more pride in his appearance than the other students.

Liana :)

Magazine Evaluation.

I feel that my magazine went well because I completed the task on time and I had added everything that was need. My magazine meets all the specified points and I included all the functions a typical magazine would have on their front cover and in their contents page, such as columns in the contents. I believe that the magazine is suitable for a school drama club because it features types of articles that would be found in a drama magazine, but it also appeals to students between the ages 14-19.

However my magazine has altered from my mock up, like having to add coloured boxes to my cover lines so that they could be seen, which was something I had not anticipated. To avoid this I could have edited the image, either by cutting Rupert out and placing him on a plainer background or by fading the picture. I was also asked to change some of my design on my front cover, for example making my banner smaller and main image bigger. Plus my contents page looks bare, so I should have added more images or text to make it look better, and I should have added page numbers so that the readers could find the articles more easily.

In conclusion I think that my magazine is acceptable as it meets all the points it was supposed to and looks professional. I'm pleased with how the production went, but think that my magazine would be better if I had spent more time on it, especially in the editing area.

Liana :)

Magazine Production.

This is my finished magazine front cover and contents page. All the pictures (of Rupert, Rhys and Nathan) were taken by me, imported into photoshop and were edited to coincide with my exam article/music tips. My cover lines are in my three colour palette (red, white and black) and are in three different fonts to add variety. My magazine was created on Photoshop Elements 5.0, which I had already used, so I cut out my photos and edited them using the software given. I learnt how to edit photos, to make them more vibrant and/or to blur them slightly ect. I also updated my old skills, such as using the magic eraser and magnetic lasso. Fill was useful to create my banner and backgrounds for the cover lines. I then saved my magazine as a JPEG file and uploaded it onto my blog.

Liana :)

Mock Ups.

Firstly we drafted a magazine front cover and contents page as everyone has to create their own magazine, instead of working in pairs. So I had to start over again, and create my own magazine which had to include a mast head, a mid shot photo, and cover lines. Our magazines had to be suitable for a school magazine, so I decided to make my magazine for the school drama club. I thought the name Genre would be a good idea, as that's something that people doing drama do a lot of work on, and it also meant that I could base the magazine around different genres of drama for different issues.

After a lot of thinking I decided to create my magazine around exam results, as it's the start of a new school year and many people are wondering what they can do with their exam grades, so I thought my magazine should include this to appeal to students who felt like they need some guidance in that area. For my 3 colours palette I chose blue, black and white first, but then I decided to change it to red, white and black as I felt these colours were more dramatic and bold. I also wanted my main photo to be of two people acting, but I had to change it to just one person, as that is what is specified. My cover lines are all about how to make your acting better, and how to add something different into your acting.

My contents page contains two photos, with numbers on to show which page the image relates to. The contents page will show all the different articles that I would include into the magazine, starting with the items mentioned on the front page at the top of the page. It will also include the magazines details and contact information. On my contents page I changed the layout so that the pictures had changed to different corners and the heading was to the left rather than in the center.

This is my front page, it includes my mast head, image, main feature and some of my cover lines. Plus everything is annotated to show the colour and font.

This is my contents page, each item (articles, images and headings) is annotated to show what colour and font it will be.

Liana :)

Magazine.

A magazine front cover needs:

1. A title or masthead (goes across the page, reflects the magazines style and should be over or under a photo).
2. Cover lines, to give information (use hyperbole, alliteration and direct address).
3. The date, price and other details.
4.Highlighted - special offer
5. Variety of fonts, colours, sizes and styles to add visual interest.
6. Cover lines/plugs/lures - to tempt the customer.
7. Use of 'direct address pronoun' creates involvement.
8. Mention celebrities to boost sales.
9. Use of 3 colour palette (reflect the target audience, and make the background stand out)
10. Mid shot photo, eye-catching image in the centre top of page.

THE TOP THIRD OF PAGE IS MOST IMPORTANT.

Main image - no downloaded pictures and you can use more than one.


Planning a magazine:
Target audience? students 14-19
Name of magazine?
Type of features? reflected in cover lines
What language will be used in the title? colloquial
Type of person in the main photograph?


Photos:
Cover (5 or 6)
Range of shots (long and close)
Lots of other shots for variety (match cover lines)
Additional students (variety of angles)
Photo mock ups.

Magazines I read: Look, Kerrang and Cosmo.

Liana :)

Preliminary Task Evaluation.

On the whole I feel that our preliminary film task went quite well. We managed to film all of the storyboard correctly and added our own parts so that everything was included into the film and the story made sense. Considering only one person in our group had done any filming on a regular basis, I think we managed to use the equipment well and we didn't have to film any scenes again because we'd filmed them wrong.

The strengths of our group is that once we started to work we managed to do most of it in one day, meaning that we had more time to edit our clips. We also edited our film very well and everyone pitched in to do something. We worked very well together as a team and were precise about our work. Our continuity was good as well because we made sure that Rhys and Rupert wore the same clothes for the next day of filming.

However some things did go wrong. There was a problem with uploading the film onto the computer as well because the computer wouldn't pick up the camera, so me and Rupert had to go back in a free lesson to sort it out, this put us behind on our editing. Also the file corrupted itself on our groups external hard drive so one member of our group had to redo the video at home.

Overall I think that our preliminary task went well because no matter what troubles we faced we still managed to get our video finished on time.

Here is our preliminary task video..



Liana :)

Production.

After we had designed our storyboards we were then given a different groups storyboard to film, and to see how informative/helpful their storyboards were for filming. We were told that we needed to film the groups storyboard as they had instructed and follow any writing the had written down. The storyboard we were given was quite hard to follow, and we were advised to add in little pieces so that the story would make sense.

The equipment used:

Camera.

The camera we used could have been better, as you had to start recording 2 seconds before you started acting and for 2 seconds after you'd stopped as not to miss anything. This meant we had extra editing to do.


Tripod

The tripod was a good piece of equipment as it allowed the filming to be straight and steady, and meant we could film from every angle. However sometimes we didn't always get the shot completely straight so some of the filming was slanted slighty.



During our task I filmed Rupert walking down the corridor and part of the conversation, I also did a lot of the editing on Premire Elements, and I made sure we had no jerky starts or stops so that everything ran smoothly in the video.

Liana :)

Pre-Production.

Firstly we got into groups and decided what we would do to complete all aspects of our preliminary task, how to include all the camera angles and different shots. We also discussed how to make our video unusual, and not just the basic outline. Then we broke down the shots into scenes and created a storyboard for each scene. The use of storyboards is important because you can add all the information that is needed to create the task set and it means you won't forget to add all the extra bits, such as how many times you would use the over the shoulder shot.

Everyone in our group created a scene from the storyboard and my scene was the conversation part of our preliminary task. In my storyboard I included reverse shot, match on action, and 180 degree shot.

The picture below shows the storyboard that I created. Each section shows a different shot and includes instructions, an image and the camera angle. The green arrows show were the camera should be pointing for the shot and the writing under the image gives instructions to what is happening in the scene, also how many times a shot will be used in succession.

Liana :)

Preliminary Task.

Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchange a couple of lines of dialogue.

This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and 180-degree rule.

Storyboards should include: shot number, an image, scene information, set, camera angles, costume, lighting and music.

Camera angles: long shot, medium shot, close up, extreme close up, match on action, over the shoulder and shot/reverse shot.

Extreme close up: a shot used to show characters facial expressions or to emphasize detail.

Over the shoulder shot/reverse shot: used to show two characters during conversation and places the camera at an easy angle to do the 180 degree shot.

Liana :)

The 5 C's.

Camera Angles

Continuity

Cutting (editing)

Close ups

Composition.

When telling the audience where the film is set, they use long shot. This lets you show all the important information.

A medium shot is the most commonly used shot in cinema. It is used to show any character interaction.

Something/someone important to show the audience use a close up.

Continuity

Generally refers to visual errors. In very basic terms it means having a character in a red top one second and a blue top the next.

Cutting/Editing

Essential otherwise films would be in real time and never end. It also allows the director to change locations. The main use is to either add pace to a scene to make it exciting, or to slow it down for dramatic emphasis.

Liana :)

About Me.

• I like spending time with my friends, messing around and having a laugh.
• I like playing football and I support Man United.
• I like things that are a bit weird/unusual, like the picture I've added, and mainly things that make me laugh.
• I love to read, I read anything I can get my hands on, which most people think is weird.
• I love America because they're so open to different things.
• I chose to do media because I would like to have a job in media and the subject interests me..
• My favourite genre of films are horror and thrillers, and one of my favourite directors is William Castle who directed House on Haunted Hill.
• I like all types of music really, except classical, but I mainly listen to Indie/Pop. My favourite band is an American band called Hoobastank and I also like Katy Perry because I think she has a really original sound.
• And just to clarify I hate Star Wars, I just thought the video was clever..

Believe it or not, these are shoes :).




Liana :)