2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? In our opening sequence we used a variety of conventions including shot types, titles, music and other features that are used in real media products. We researched other opening sequences and adapted and included some similar features that they had included. On the other hand we have also used a lot of original ideas to make our opening sequence as individual as possible. We included as many different and interesting shot types as possible to make our product modern. We also used shots that would enable one of our characters to be unknown so that it would be mysterious and make the audience want to know the characters identity. We edited a variety of different things in our opening sequence for example we used a train sound to break up two different songs in order to make it flow. One piece of music we used for our opening sequence is similar to other pieces in existing products however we also used another type of music that would not commonly be used in the genre of a rom com but is suitable for the current time. Our pieces of music both came from unsigned bands. One piece of music is fast tempo (The Take Over) and one slow piece of music (Chelmsford-In my head).
3. How does your media product represent particular social groups? One of the main themes in our film opening is the representation of social groups. We focused on the representations of teenagers/ young adults and the different social group within this age group. To represent the differences, mise-en-scene was a big factor. The use of costume made it clear that one character was of a much higher social status than the other and showed that they were polar opposites. Also the use of shot types helped to add impact to a certain social group by using shots that disguise the characters identity, make the social differences more obvious as when the characters identity is revealed the audience is more aware of the difference between the two characters. The representations can be seen as positive for the higher social group and negative for the lower social group at first. However this changes when the audience gain empathy for the character with the lower social status. Because the social groups of teenagers in our opening sequence are similar to those in true life the audience can relate to the characters.
4. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? I think that our film could be distributed by a main Hollywood studio such as Universal because it is an individual storyline and maybe if we used an American actor it would interest them more. It is similar to the film : ‘She’s all that’, but with reverse roles. As that film was a success the company would see that our film would most probably be successful as well. This way it will be accessible to different countries and people may be drawn in due to the distribution company. It would make a lot of money as a DVD as customers could buy it and then have it forever.
5. Who would be the audience for your media product? The audience for our product would mainly be females aged between 14-22 as the characters in the film are of similar ages and social groups therefore the audience will be able to relate the characters to themselves and other people they know. I think people would also find it interesting to get an insight of what other social groups are like. This could attract other audiences from outside the target audience. It could also possibly attract adults who are interested to see how social groups within the young society have changed over time. As our film has a rather individual storyline this could broaden the audience because they would not have seen anything like it before. We decided to classify our film as a 12 because of the classification criteria rules which state that moderate language is not usually acceptable in a classification lower than a 12 and our film contains moderate language.
6. How did you attract/address your audience? In order to attract and address our audience we used a variety of features that would appeal to them. For example our music choices were modern as the audience is more likely to be interested by the use of modern music. We also tried to use a lot of interesting shots to interest the audience. For example filming from inside a wardrobe is something that is not commonly used in other products. Also the use of modern technology (laptops and computers) is a major theme throughout the opening sequence, which is something that the target audience of teenagers take an interest in and is popular as it is modern technology. Locations and settings attracted the audience, as again they are similar settings to which the target audience would be familiar with. The genre also would attract the audience, as it is far more likely that females are going to be drawn to a romantic comedy.
7. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Firstly, from this project I have learnt some basic camera skill and how to edit footage using Adobe editing program. I have learnt how to cut footage and edit it; use different transitions; add titles and sound/music and other key conventions included in making a film. For a lot of our film we sped the footage up to in some cases make It look more realistic. For example the train pulling in and then leaving was too slow so therefore we needed to speed it up and in some cases just to add emphasis on the rush to get ready. I learnt how to add diagetic sounds (the train sound) in order to create more realism, to break up two different pieces of music and to introduce a new scene. I also learnt how to add credits and titles and how to position them in different places at different time which enabled us to make our credits more interesting. I also learnt how to use blogger and upload documents and images. Our group did experience some difficulties with using blogger for example when the system went down and we had to upload our work all at once. We also learnt to upload tables as images in order to put them on presentably.
8. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? From our preliminary task we were able to address any problems that we encountered before doing our final product. For example we learnt that some shot types were unrealistic to achieve with the equipment and locations we were using. Therefore in our full product we understood that we needed to make sure that our shot types were not too complicated and able to accomplish. From the process of our preliminary task we were also able to learn how to use Adobe editing program and therefore when we came to use it for our final opening sequence we were familiar with the program and able to use it with a high understanding of how to use it. From our preliminary we also learnt that it was important to film in the same lighting and in some cases that meant filming on the same day to avoid different lighting and drastic weather changes.
