Tuesday 13 May 2014


Evaluation

 

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The social group that is represented in our opening sequence is teenagers, particularly British. We filmed three different teenage boys (Jack, Paul and Conor) completing everyday life activities: Paul was filmed completing work at a computer representing teenagers as intelligent and hardworking; Jack was filmed walking home from football training which represents teenagers as being very sociable but also highly active and sporty. Lastly Conor, filmed watching TV, represents the fact that teens need time to relax and escape from stresses of education or life situations. As a group we believe that this footage is a genuine representation of teenage life as it captures many common factors included in teenage lifestyle.

 

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for our media product would be teenagers aged 15+. Many film companies try to make their film more engaging and relatable to the audience and seeing as though the three main characters in our film are teenagers we feel as though this aged audience will be able to relate to what the boys are going through during the film.

Additionally we chose to aim our media product at this particular audience due to the complexity of it. Our opening sequence is complex therefore would need to be watched carefully with full attention to understand the storyline fully therefore we believe people much younger than this age would find it difficult to understand the story and therefore not enjoy it.

 

How did you attract/address your audience?

Primarily we decided to use teens as our main characters as they would be more likely to relate with the audience. Although all of the characters in the film are male, following the traditional action film convention, females would still be able to relate and interact with the characters as they represent a teenager’s lifestyle.

Furthermore, action genre films are highly popular within teenage target audiences, especially male teens as the thrill and excitement would attract them to watch action genre films over romantic genre films.

Furthermore, we could produce advertisements which we could put on social networking sites, such as Twitter, so teens of that age would be able to view the progress of the filming making, which would make them aware of the media product. We could also release small trailers and gifts to keep the audience interested.

 

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Unfortunately I hadn’t studied media until a few months ago but the progress in my knowledge on technology involved in media has expanded greatly. When editing our opening sequence we used a programme called Final Cut Pro, when using this I learnt to experiment with sound effects and image effects. This has benefitted me as I now feel more comfortable and has allowed me to gain knowledge on editing processes.

When filming our opening sequence we were very lucky that Sophie had a decent camera which also videoed. On our first shoot we used another camera and the difference between the images from that shoot to our final shoot was unbelievable.

 

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Our preliminary task had to include a match on action, shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. Unfortunately I and my group had to re-shoot out preliminary task for many reasons, one being that you could not see the other person in the shot reverse shot. By practising these shot types and many more it helped us to make sure we filmed the shot types we wanted in our opening sequence correctly.

After we filmed our final piece for our preliminary task we had to edit the footage together. This enabled us to gain a lot of knowledge on continuity editing which obviously came in handy when editing our opening sequence. For example we had to edit together two shots of Paul leaving the room, one shot being a mid shot and the other shot being a close up of his feet. When editing these shots we had to make sure he was stood on the same foot in the second shot as what he was in the first shot.

When it came to editing our first shoot we noticed that it was very repetitive as we used zoom in and zoom out too often. After much analysis and group discussion we decided to only use a very small number of zooms and focus more on the variety of shots, for example a close up and an establishing shot.

 

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

As a group we decided to focus our opening sequence on the action genre. Throughout the process of producing our opening sequence we researched the conventions of action films and made sure we included as many conventions as we possibly could in our footage to make it clear to the audience it is an action film.

We followed the Vladimir Propp theory:

·         The hero: the 3 boys (Paul, Jack and Conor). They are the hero’s because they are on a mission to save their group leader, Jake

·         The princess: Jake. Although in many action films the princess is female, in our case the princess is a male as he is the reward for the boys’ efforts throughout the mission

·         The dispatcher: Rick. This is because he sends a text message to the three boy’s telling them to meet at the car park to find out what they have to do to get Jake back to safety

·         The villain: Rick and his gang. This is because him and his gang cruelly kidnap Jake and hold him hostage until help arrives

When I researched what the conventions of an action film were, I managed to find out there were many. However, I have narrowed the list down to: weapons (knives, guns, swords), a question/ mission waiting to be completed, includes both a hero and villain and explosions and crashes.

Unfortunately, due to the complexity we were unable to use explosions and crashes in our opening sequence as we believed it would not look realistic and make the film look poor. Additionally, we didn’t use weapons. You will see in some of my blog posts I have been taking pictures of my dad tied up in a small room under my stairs, in one of the pictures there are some golf clubs. I included these in the picture as I thought they added tension and drama therefore I hoped to use them in the final product but unfortunately our ideas changed and Jake was filmed in a car boot instead of a small room so the golf clubs were not used as they didn’t fit.

However, we included the other two conventions these being a mission/ quest waiting to be completed, in our case the mission was to save Jake from the danger of Rick and his gang, and also we included both a hero and villain, in our case the hero being Paul, Jack and Conor and the princess being Jake.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I believe that Universal Pictures UK would be a suitable distributor for our media product. In 2012 they distributed ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ which sees a young woman fight to save her region from being ruled by her evil stepmother, played by Charlize Theron. Personally, I think this film relates to our media product well as when comparing them it is noticeable that in both we see young people fighting for what they believe in and the struggles of everyday teenage life. For example, in our opening sequence we see three boys fighting to save their leader, Jake, whilst trying to deal with their own social and personal problems. Likewise, in ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ we see a young woman dealing with the tragic loss of her father whilst fighting to save other family members and friends.

Thursday 10 April 2014

Journal (21)
On Tuesday and Wednesday my group went back after school to continue editing our opening title sequence. Unfortunately I was unable to make both days due to medical appointments. However, after watching the final piece all the way through I am more than pleased with the progress my group have made without me.
Jake had managed to add in some transitions to show time passing and also another music piece called ‘Shaded Speech’ to the first scene. Furthermore Jess and Sophie added in the credits and did little adjustments which was needed.
The next step for I and my group is to upload our final piece onto our blogs.
Journal (20)
After school today (Monday 7th April) me, Sophie and Jess went back to our media classroom and edited the footage that we filmed on Sunday but due to other commitments we were unable to stay for longer than 35 minutes. We found that editing this was easy and quick therefore the 35 minutes were more than enough.
We used the same icons such as ‘blade’ to edit the footage and make it look as continuous as we possibly could. The next step for us is to catch up with Jake and tell him what exactly we did.
We are all happy to say that we have finally finished editing our footage together and all that is left to do is finish sound and also add suitable credits. 

Journal (19)
Shoot day
As a group we arranged to film the last bit of our opening sequence (the first scene) on Sunday 6th April. Due to the Manchester marathon many roads were closed therefore we agreed to meet at Sophie’s at 3:00pm however none of us could get in touch with Jake until 4:00pm therefore we could not begin filming until around 4:15pm.
Unfortunately I had a netball match at 6:30pm so we had to work as efficiently as we could to get it all filmed before I had to rush off. Me, Sophie and Jess worked well together when taking control of the camera work as we gave each other a lot of advice on different camera shots/ angles we could use.

We are all happy to say that our filming is complete after a total number of 3 re-shoot.

What’s next?
The next step is to edit together the footage we got on Sunday and try to finish the sound by Tuesday 8th April so we have 2-3 days to edit in the credits. 

Shooting schedule
Sunday 6th April

Time
Day/ night
Exterior/ interior
Shot description/ summary
Location
Characters
3:50 – 4:15
We met at Sophie’s house at 3:50 and waited for Jake to arrive at 4:10
4:15 – 4:30
 
 
 
 
 
Evening
Exterior  
In this 15 minutes we took an establishing shot of the house, another establishing shot of the house but this time seeing my dad (Rick) walking out of the house, a close up of the back of the car and lastly a close up of the front of the car
 
 
 
 
 
Sophie’s house/ garage
 
 
 
 
 
Rick
4:35 – 5:05
 
We filmed Rick sending the text (mid-shot), a close up of Jakes bound hands and feet, a close up of a bag on his head, an over shoulder shot of the text message being sent and a mid-shot of Rick closing the boot of the car
 
 

Thursday 3 April 2014

Journal (18)
In today’s lesson (Thursday 3rd April) we edited together we footage we got on Tuesday. Jake wasn’t in today’s lesson therefore he wasn’t involved in the process of editing today.
We are now used to the icons and the editing process so we thought that today is was easy to edit. There was one point in the footage that it looked as though it jumped so we had to cut both clips down slightly to try and make it look as continuous as possible also there were two clips that we noticed didn’t go together fully. One of the clips was the midshots of Paul getting up and beginning to walk out and the other clip was a mid-shot of him walking past the camera but when we edited them together the last bit of the first clip Paul was in front of the desk whereas the other clip Paul was behind the desk so we had to use the ‘blade’ icon to down both of them down so Paul was placed at the same positioning, we also had to think about his footwork and link up the footages as he was continuously walking.
After we had finished editing the footage we began experimented with music. We decided to take out ‘Werewolf’ and use ‘All but forgotten’ instead as we thought this suited a lot because ‘Werewolf’ was too upbeat for the footage used in the opening sequence. However, we have still used ‘Werewolf’ for when we see the car arriving and for the rest of the footage afterwards, including the title.

What’s next?
The next steps for I and my group is to fully complete filming on Sunday. This includes the first scene so we will get together as a group and check over the plan we have made.