1. Edward Neely

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products.
Our product has developed the generic conventions of british social realism. We
have developed from the typical opening. We have continued to use the
narrative style but developed the product to contrast two people rather than
documenting a single person. Also we have documented the present rather
than the past which is what other british social realism films tend to do. We
have researched other british social realism films and used similar ideas from
some but included the theme of rich and poor from a documentary. I think
that is the biggest development although a lot of films document, ours
contrasts between two different people at a present time contrasting and
comparing the similarities and differences between them. The conventions do
suggest that it is a British social realism film opening because it clearly shows
two British teenagers. We tried to make our opening as original as possible,
therefore it does not show what other films influenced us. This is what we
aimed to do because we wanted to include the generic conventions but still be
original.

3. These frames show the key points within our opening sequence. Each frame
shows what shots we chose to take and also a feel of each scene. The picture 4
frame shows the simple titles we chose to introduce the name to the film. We
only used alarms (phones) as props and included no transitions to make the
sequence more naturalistic. We chose naturalistic costumes and tried to film in
a natural way.

4. How does your media product represent particular social
groups? Our product is based around focusing on different social groups, The
main social groups represented are age and social class mainly
social class as you hardly see varied ages but it gives an insight
into a teenagers life so it is related to age. one character is a well-
off person with an organised and flowing life, the other is a poor
person with a last-minute, rushed life. It shows the social group
difference in the mise-en-scene, especially the settings and
costumes. Upper and lower class are represented in a more
stereotypical ways. The upper class teenager apears to be
dominant because he looks at the lower class person in a
disrespectful way. Also the costumes suggest that one is upper
class as they are wearing smarter clothes. The way the upper
character speaks also is steriotypical as he speaks in proper
English, for example he says “Goodbye Mummy” instead of
something like “See ya Mum”.
This could link to the target audience because they probably would
have seen someone act in a similar way or look a similar way to
either of the characters. Also they may have judged someone in
real life in the way they judge the character.

5. What kind of media institution might distribute your media
product and why?
I think this product could be produced by a major hollywood studio for the
reasons that it is a film with an interesting plot and relates to many people. It
has a few elements which are similar to other hollywood films but is still
original which could be a key reason why it could be distributed by a major
hollywood company. Also it could however be a TV movie to educate people on
homelessness and different social groups. I think the final film if it were to be
finished would be too long for an internet film however if it was made to be
shorter then it could be sucsessful as a internet film.
As a DVD/Blueray it could make money by people either buying the film to
watch again or buy to see for the first time. This would not work if it was
published on the internet because people would watch it online. Also people
would not want to buy it if it focused less on the entertainment side and more
on the documentary side it could be shown in cinemas if it were to be for
entertainment purposes which I would expect it to be.

6. We designed a production company logo similar to IFC Films as they produced similar films
to ours. We made our logo original and Un-like IFC, animated. We also chose for the
music in our animated logo to be in time with the footprints printing as this made the
logo more interesting and easy to watch. We chose two include the footprint ideograms
for a memorable logo for viewers to remember.

7. Who would be the audience for your media product?
I think the audience would be anyone who could relate to the conventions and
elements shown in the film. This is quite a wide audience because many people
could be interested in other people’s life at a different age, class, gender etc.
However I think the main audience would be teenagers and young adults
between the ages of 14-25 mainly.
Other films similar to ours are ‘This is England’ which appeals to a broad
audience, this film documents the 80’s. Many people in the teenage age range
have watched this film and have fed back with positive comments. However we
also have the element similar to the “Rich kid – Poor kid” channel 4
documentary which could appeal to the older generation who enjoy watching
documentaries and factual media.
I think the bbfc would rate the final film as a ‘15’ in their categories because the
final product would be likely to contain elements not suitable for
younger viewers, as many other similar films do the same. We can
tell our demographic by looking at peoples interest in the
opening, we showed our video to a sample of different ages and
teens seemed to find it most interesting and adults less
interested. We also used class feedback to see what the target
audience would want to see in the final product.

8. How did you attract/address your audience?
To attract and address our audience we related many elements to British life.
Many viewers would find similarities between themselves and the characters or
locations as we included more than one social class. We used naturalistic mise-
en-scene to achieve this. The camerawork and editing helped the viewer to feel
the naturalism of the product. We chose a idea that would appeal to many
people outside of Britain also. People outside of Britain may be interested in
British life and British social class. I think the fact that the lower class teenager
is homeless could shock viewers as they may not know that many teenagers are
on the streets and this could spark an interest in the film. The audience are put
in the position of both characters by seeing the characters morning routine,
one more stressful than the other due to bad organization. The viewer will see
the lower class teenager rushing to college after sleeping in after a rough night.
On the viewer this impacts their emotions as they understand how the lower
class teenager has a harder life due to the issue of money and class.
On the right The chosen We used no
the character setting is a transitions
wears a school, an and static
costume the everyday camera
intended environment angles to
audience is which the add to the
likely to wear viewers are naturalism.
. likely to attend.

9. What have you learnt about technologies from the
process of constructing the product?
We have learned lots from this project but mainly built on previous skills, practised and produced a
better product than the last project. We independently used the computer software and used the
cameras to produce high quality footage. In final cut whilst editing our footage we experienced some
problems with the sound which led us to learning how to use a tape deck, however this did not solve
the problem and we ended up having to manually synchronise the audio with the video by plotting
points on both the video and the audio and aligning them. Apart from this we had no other major
problems with the technology. We didn’t use any extra equipment to enhance the footage as we
wanted to keep a naturalistic feel to the footage. In final cut we also had to add in the alarm sound as
there was no alarm sound whilst we were filming. We timed the alarm perfectly from when the clock
changed to when the clock stopped. We had to change the levels also to make it sound more diagetic,
this was a new skill we learned.
We used garageband to produce the soundtrack, this was simple as we knew exactly what we wanted to
create from the soundtrack research. However, the clips in garageband itself were limited and we had
to work with what we had to produce a quality soundtrack. It was useful because it simplifies the
whole process of making a soundtrack as it cuts out the recording and timing elements.

10. In Garageband I learned In Final cut I learned how to In Photoshop I learned
how to use samples to cut and edit a piece of how to make a good-
compose a soundtrack footage and turn footage looking logo. This was
for our products. Using into a product. This was beneficial to the
samples was a simple extremely helpful as we production company as
approach to making a could easily edit the footage we could make an
professional soundtrack. easily and professionally. attractive logo.
The only effect we chose to
use in Final cut was adding
the alarm sound in. We
created it in garageband and
final cut helped because we
could import it and change
the levels to make it sound
more diagetic.

11. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that
you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Our preliminary task taught us the basics and we had to run on strict guidelines, in the real
project we had more freedom to what we had to do. Also we had plenty of practise in the
previous task to make us prepared for the final task. The detailed research we carried out
helped us more to know what to do for our specific genre, for example – knowing to make
the costumes, setting, lighting etc how they are. We did not have to do this in the
preliminary task as it was already done. The research helped us make the final project
better as we knew exactly what to do and there were no blank patches in our knowledge and
also we knew how we wanted the final product to look.
We learned in the progression from the preliminary task how to make our shot types not
only more varied but higher quality and including more interesting elements such as the
right areas of the setting etc.
We all feel much more confident with the equipment and know how to use everything well
also we know how to look after the equipment properly.
I think we fulfilled our project task well. We came across a few set-backs and overcame
them well. I think our team worked well and made good use of the bad and good situations
we had. I am glad I worked with the people I did.

12. Preliminary Task Thriller Project Opening Sequence Project
The preliminary task The Opening Sequence
The Thriller project
was extremely short project was our most
was much better than
and simple. This was successful project. Our
the preliminary but a
our first project and we editing techniques
few things went wrong.
were not used to the were better than before
We were much more
software and and our camerawork
confident with the
equipment etc. was good. We knew
equipment and
exactly what to do and
software in this project
- Link to video below. executed it well.
but the final product
was a bit bad because
- Link to video below.
the night filter didn’t
work too well.
- Link to video below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSL0NZNK1ns http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq_Sx9YA7QQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S36Nzp8i-l0