Evaluation Question 7

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


I do think that my preliminary task wasn't the greatest media product ever to begin with so improving it wasn't hard, but we have come a long way. When i first turned on a mac i hadn't a clue how to use soundtrack pro, but now i can cut, edit and change the sound to how i see fit.


On the preliminary task camera angles and shots were always askew, and never accurate but now due to increase in practice and better understanding of rules to do with framing, we can create a professional looking film.


continuity was a huge downfall in the preliminary task(see below) we made sure this mistake didn't happen again.





Lighting techniques were extremely important in our film and we managed to use them effectively here is one technique i learnt.


I have learnt many things on this course;

• Learning to use new and upcoming technology like blogger, you tube or final cut, to easily and effectively create films and media products.
• Time managment is really important in media industries.
• Working together to get an awesome finished product!

Evaluation Question 6

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

To create our media product i had to use some really interesting and awesome new technologies. With these new technologies we can create media products much faster and efficiently.

Digital video cameras.

The use of digital video camera's is now a must in creating films, this is because before films had to be spliced and cut so careful and once something had been cut there was no going back. But when we created our film, we could move things about and try them in different places, add in new scenes and now store it on a hard disk. Some cameras now even come with internet connectivity so that films can be shot and instantly uploaded to the web.

Apple mac.

Apple macs are an excellent choice when it comes to film creation, because of less computability issues and better software than windows computers. However a lot of the software isn't third-party so there isn't as many options.

Final cut.

Final cut is the leading brand in all movie creation software, it can read almost any digital video camera, edit in HD, transitions, sound, brightness and contrast changing, animation, video splicing, cutting and cropping videos too. it is used in almost every film company to edit movies.

WEB 2.0

WEB 2.0 is the future creating media products, whether its uploading your films to youtube, sharing them with your friends on facebook or even sharing your projects and thoughts using Blogger or prezi, none of this would be possible without it. it helped me share my ideas and in fact easily and securly keep all my notes in one place.

Evaluation Question 5

How did you address/attract your target audience? 


In the pre production of the film and writing the plot, we found it quite easy to target our audience demographic mainly because, its us! Our audience is the same age as us and ideas were developed by us. I believe that to attract an audience you have to relate with them, below are some examples that appeal to our target audience.

The girl in the red dress is something our demographic can relate to, partying and living life to the fullest. Going out drinking can relate well to our 18+ audience. Below i have embedded a song which includes teenagers having 'fun' partying. although it is quite cheesy.



The couple arguing is also something our audience can relate to. Young love. And because they can relate to this they enjoy almost re-playing it on screen.

The use of modern technology, we thought would appeal to anyone who came to watch our film, but particularly our younger audience because they are digital natives. We wanted to show that although technology is a good thing, you also need to be careful with it because situations can get out of control. The use of a mobile phone targets anyone with a mobile because the storyline which we integrated into our thriller held a message of being careful who you talk to and give your number to, so we wanted to try to get that across and appeal to the target audience at the same time.

Evaluation Question 4

Our target audience was 15-25 mainly because of the characters in our film relate to the audience, but also because this is the mean age of majority film go-ers and most film companies target this audience.

Here is our target audience.


All the people in this photo age from 16-18 and enjoy thrillers, (our chosen genre) however there is a gender imbalance, this is because, statistically men would rather watch a thriller than women, we have challenged this in our film by making our lead character a female to make interest for female 15-25 year olds.

The person on the right would like to see the dark knight, however person on the left would rather see the hangover, and no matter what we cant please everyone and it generally comes down to personally preference.

Evaluation Question 3

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


Our film was funded independently, and was only shot with 4 crew members and a voluntary actress, so a small british independent company would most likely distribute our film. Most likely starting with a straight to DVD feature and download via itunes e.t.c.


Itunes
Distribution using itunes is a really popular method to sell films, it is apple's creation and is now global. They also distribute many independent films and have made small companies big bucks. due to its accessibility and popularity


Shorts international
Shorts International is based in London, however, also has offices in New York Los Angeles and Paris. I gather from their website that they have links to iTunes, which would mean that the films are distributed to a wide range of people. Their submission form gives the option to state whether it is a student film and if so, what school you attend. I think that this would mean that this company would accept our film and would distribute it for us, definitely as a finished product and possibly also as a 2 minute beginning as it is.


Omni film distribution.
 Omni Film Distribution Inc is based in California and distributes films and sells them on DVD. The description of the film can be found on the website and can also be purchased on the site. They accept films of all genres and lengths so I think that they would accept our film. This would be a good option for us as it would be a way for us to distribute our film on DVD.


I believe that Omni, and itunes would be our best way to go to distribute our film, itunes popularity and direct download system will be a great way of quickly getting our film our around and it is very simple. Omni also a great company because the majority of film audiences still use DVD video to access media products, and due to our length they would gladly accept our film.

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?


In our film i believe we represented 3 social groups, typical teenage party animal, mentally unwell and a shady stereotypical teenage hoody.

As you can see this character is clearly unwell as shown by her messed up hair, white gown and black eyes.

She was both the killer and victim in our plot  and that mental illness can affect anyone of any age, and especially young people due to the amount of stresses they have to deal with.
Although not shown in our first two minutes, the idea was that it would be revealed that the girl had had her drink spiked which is what caused her to go on her killing spree and black out.

Here is an screenshot of a girl, of similar age (18-25) from Jennifer's body, and as you can see from her expression and the bars behind her she is also mentally unwell.









This is the girl in the red dress from our film, she is presented to the audience as a party girl, the dress is symbolic to the plot-line of the story and a convention taken from sin city, she is dressed somewhat provoctively, as if she is enjoying her life and also being quite flirtatious like stereotypical teenagers, for example E4 show Skins.

Here we can see, ryan same age as the girl, he wears a hoody and his face is obscure, and his costume and character is taken from stereotypical british teens. This character is seen driving away from his girlfriend who he has kicked out of the car, and not stopping to pick her up until she has screamed her lungs out trying to get his attention.  I think that this would allow us to tackle a mild form of domestic violence in our film. The music which is played by this character also shows how angry he is for such a young person and could suggest that his anger stems from a previous point in his life, which is very common in many young people. 

A screenshot from kidulthood. Another film containing obscure violent teenagers.














We tried to use characters that our audience could relate to, with teen life built around stress, work, school and of course partying. we made our female character someone who our target audience (15-25) could empathise with.

Evaluation question 1

In what way does your media product challenge, develop or use Forms and conventions from real media products?

Here is a video in which we talk about our developed challenged and used conventions, and why we used them.



Here are some existing conventions, that are taken from different real media products:

As you can see here we have several murderers (Hannibal lecter), scenes from the dark knight, and sin city.

Here are some of the conventions we used in our film: