Thursday, 29 March 2012
7. Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in progression from it to your final product?
7. Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in progression from it to your final product?
I have embedded both my preliminary task and my final product: Deadly kiss. Since starting the course, I have learnt about, planning, editing, shooting and distribution, all in which go into creating a film, some of the skills I have improved on are listed below.
· The use of useful media documents: story boards, scripts and schedules all helped enable us to be more organised. When planning our preliminary task, we used a script but we didn’t use a storyboard or schedule, this led us to a lower quality preliminary task and a higher quality final task.
· We used a variety of shots during our final task, whereas during our preliminary task we only used a mid-shoot throughout.
· Our preliminary task was the first time we had firsthand experience with experimenting different shot types and camera skills. Before we started filming our final product, we had an idea of what type of shots we wanted to use, we decided these when we created our storyboard.
· Our preliminary task gave us a better knowledge of final cut pro, as before our preliminary task we hadn’t used an iMac for editing. During our preliminary task, we didn’t use Final Cut Pro to its full extent. In our final task we used a wider range of effects and titles.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
iMac: To complete our media product, we had to use an apple iMac and a range of software found on the iMac. This wasn’t my first time using an Apple computer but it was my first time using a lot of the software we used. Professional media institutions also use a similar setup in professional film making. I have explained all the technologies we used to create our final media product below.
CameraSony HVR-V1U pro HDV 1080p: For us to shoot our footage for our media product, we used a (insert camera name): this was my first time using a camera, so at first I found it complicated. Once I got the hang of it, it was simple to use. To record our footage, we used a (insert tape name); we used a physical tape compared to some who use digital technology. The invention of digital recording technologies have improved the production of media products, making them easier to make and cheaper.
Final Cut Pro: To edit the footage we filmed, we used Final Cut Pro on the iMac. Final Cut Pro offered a wide range of effects, transitions and titles for us to use in our final product. My first experience of using Final Cut Pro was during our preliminary task. During our preliminary task, I received help editing from a fellow student, so I didn’t have as much first hand experience. While editing our final product, I found the technology of Final Cut Pro confusing. I mainly used trial and error to help me learn how to us the program effectively. I also used Final Cut Pro to add the titles to our final product. If we hadn’t used Final Cut Pro, our media product may have been poor quality due to the lack of knowledge about other editing programs.
YouTube: We had to use YouTube to publish our film. We were able to publish our film to the public free of charge; we could also embed evidence of our upload. I had previously used you tube to upload videos as I have a YouTube account. We also had to use YouTube to upload our preliminary task.
Blogger: I used Blogger as a way of keeping track of my media journey. Blogger was the best alternative to use for tracking our media journey; this is because of its features. Blogger allows you to edit old post, embed videos, images and sounds. Before I studied media, I had never used Blogger or any type of internet blogging device.
Twitter: I used Twitter to advice my final media product. We had to collect audience feedback on our final product; I used Twitter as a means of advertising my final product. Bigger production companies use TV and other media sources to advertise their products, but as we were on a budget we used a Social Networking Site to promote our product for free.
A successful combination of all the different types of hardware, software and technologies above, have allowed me to create my final media product. Prior to the advancement of technology, the outcome would have been virtually impossible.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
This screenshot is our establishing shot for our film. The teenage girl aged between 16-18 will appeal to those in college, or who have recently left college. Also it will relate to girls, as the majority of girls enjoy re-applying their make-up throughout the day.This screenshot of our main actress, may also persuade the male members of our target audience to watch our film.
This screenshot is of the main character once again, smoking outside. We think that this will help the older half of our target audience relate to our media product, as seeing an adult theme such as smoking, will help them to understand our film isn’t for the younger generation of society (below 16).
Also We believe the music we used will help us attract our target audience, because it is an upbeat track and will relate to the type of music genre our target audience may enjoy.
Many of the films our target audience said were their favourites had some of the issues addressed in our film. This is why we believe we will be able to attract our ideal target audience.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Above I have uploaded a picture of our ideal target audience for our media product. We are aiming our final product at people aged 16-21. At first our target audience was 18-25, but we changed our idea and decided to set our story in a college. We therefore changed our target audience to college pupils, college leavers and university students. To help us reach this conclusion, we asked a mixed group of 8 people the following questions:
1.
2. Age3. What films do you like other than Drama?
4. What type of music do you like?
5. What type of magazine do you read?
6. Do you play Games Consoles?
7. What are your favourite TV shows?
8. What do you do on the weekend?
9. What do you spend your money on?
10. What websites do you visit?
11. What phone do you have ?
I have embedded a sample of one of the interviews we filmed.
As our story is about two pretty girls, who kill a boy and have no remorse, this leads us to believe our target audience to be more towards males.
We are aiming our final product at working class and middle class students; this is because our film is located in a government funded college. We feel our product can relate to a wide audience as it follows the normal life of 16-18 year old girls.
We asked our target audience to name some of their favourite films from the past couple of years:
· Kidulthood
· Adulthood
· Project X
· Paranormal Activity
· Final Destination
· Orphan
The majority of these films are dramas/horrors, this matched with our target audience research as we choose to target our film at people in college or who have recently left college as they would be able to relate with the lifestyle of our characters. When we showed the group our film, they said some of the following comments about our film:
· ‘I want to see what happened next.’
· ‘It leaves you in suspense and wanting to know what happened before.’
· ‘These girls remind me of girls from my college.’
From these comments, we found that our film matched our ideal target audience. The group believed they would be able to relate to our movie.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Above I have inserted two images: on the left- our media product and on the right-Kidulthood. I have chose Kidulthood mainly due to its teenage cast. I believe there is similarity between the two representations.
Kidulthood is a 2006 British Drama film focusing on the life of 6 teenagers. Red Madrell and Jaime Winstone, the actresses playing the teenagers pictured, are portrayed as the stereotypical working class teenagers. This is similar to our media product which is portraying teenage girls as self centred and deceitful.
Our media product: Deadly Kiss is representing teenagers as students and members of a college. Our cast were asked to wear their normal everyday clothes, this is classed as normal casual wear in which our target audience can relate to. However in Kidulthood, the teenagers are dressed in school uniform as it is set in a school and the main characters are in year 11. Later on in the movie, the girls are seen in casual wear similar to our media product.
Both teenage casts are used to develop the plot of the movies. There are additional stereotypical views seen in Kidulthood, as the teenage girls are seen smoking, using drugs and drinking. This stereotype is also portrayed in our media product as the main character is seen to be smoking outside.
Our perceptions of teenagers are similar to that in Kidulthood. Both films portray teenagers to be in school/college studying. I believe our product is portraying teenagers through our own eyes as well as societies. As I am a teenager myself, I think that Kidulthood is over stereotypical in the way teenagers are being portrayed.
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