2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The genre of the film produced by my group was superhero. The
film is similar to other films from the same genre in a few different
ways. The most obvious is the marvel logo at the beginning of the
sequence, flickering images from marvel comics followed by the
marvel logo. We chose this as marvel is the main producer of
superhero films and it fits in with the genre of our film. The film is
similar to films such as Spiderman as the main character Gary is
bullied like peter parker in Spiderman. We used other films from
marvel to help us to produce our story line, however we tried to
make our story unique in terms of how the main character gains
their powers or how they are released. Instead of using one
physical event such as Peter Parker getting bitten by the spider,
we chose something that would progress as the film went
therefor we chose bullying.
3. How does your media product represent particular social
groups?
Our film represents a number of social groups, the two main
social groups represented are teenagers as a whole and social out
casts such as bully victims like Garry. Teenagers in our film are
represented in a way which makes them seem bad and in some
ways seem as if they like to have power over weaker individuals,
this is portrayed through the bullying of Garry. The bullies are
picking on an individual who is weaker than them and is new to
the school, they are in a way at the top of the chain in the
playground. The fact that the other students don’t step in to help
Garry, again is showing that the bullies are the top of the chain.
The film uses negative stereotypes such as teenagers are badly
behaved and are bullies. This is seen throughout the film through
the scenes of Garry being bullied, another negative stereotype
shown is that teenagers don’t care about what is happening to
others. This is shown through the way other students stay quiet
or they join in by laughing as Garry is getting bullied.
4. What kind of media institution might distribute your media
product and why?
The media institute that I feel would distribute our
film would be marvel. I feel this as marvel is the
leading distributor of superhero films, the genre of
our film is superhero. The story line progresses just
as the films from marvel do, it progresses to the
point where the superhero gains his powers and
then triumphs over the villain.
5. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for this film would be teenagers and young people,
both male and female who enjoy superhero films. This is our
target audience as the story line of the film is about a young
person moving to a new school who is bullied. Many teenagers
will have experienced this at some point in their life therefor
they can relate to Garry. The audience feedback showed me that
the film did attract the intended audience; I also found out that
the audience can relate to the characters in the film as they are
of the same age. They can also relate to the story line of the film
as it is based on the sort of real life situations in schools. The film
also attracts superhero film enthusiasts as the story builds up to
the point where the hero’s powers are released and he
triumphs.
6. How did you attract/address your audience?
Mise-en-scene is what attracts the audience; it is what keeps them
interested in the film and is used to identify locations or what is
happening. The props and costumes should be appropriate to the scene
or the story of the film, in our film for costume we used the 6th form
uniform code and the dress used for specific subjects in the school. This
tells the audience that the film is about school kids, props such as desks
show the scene is set in a class room during a lesson. This attracts the
audience is it help them to understand the film, they aren’t left feeling
confused. Through the audience feedback I learned that the decisions we
made were correct as everyone understood what was going on, they
understood what the different scenes were. Also the actors performance
kept the audience engaged as they portrayed the emotions to the
audience, the audience understood the part each actor played.
7. What have you learnt about technologies from the process
of constructing this product?
Though this process I have learnt how to use the camera, I’ve learnt how
to place the camera in different positions, use different shots and use
functions such as zoom to make the film more effective and interesting.
Using the Mac for editing enabled me to loom back at the footage and
identify any improvements that are needed, insert effects where they are
needed to improve the film. It also enabled the group to look back at
footage and find areas where the acting in the scene can be improved e.g.
may need to show more emotion; also we could find areas where a
different type of shot may be more effective. Learning all these different
aspects has helped to improve the production of the film.
8. Preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full product?
During the planning stages a lot of detail was included such
as the length of each shot was written on the storyboard.
From the beginning of the production up to the finished
product I learnt that not everything goes to plan, there will
be many things that are changed, left out or added. I learnt
that during the course of the production, shots that we
may have thought would be appropriate weren’t therefor
had to change and use more appropriate shots. I also
learnt how to position the camera effectively and use
functions such as zoom to improve the final product.
Another thing I’ve learnt is that editing plays a huge role in
the production and the final product.
