Evaluation

1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the convections of real media products?

My media product uses the convections of real media products of the Romantic Drama genre as I have used:

Common settings: Character home's, beach, seaside towns and a pretty woodland/park = all so that the character can become familiar and used to the character's surroundings.

Props: Bag, clothes, pictures of Rachel, car, mobile phone and Character's clothing = everyday item that the audience is familiar with and are normally sene in everyday life. 

Characters: An attractive male and female lead to attract the audience and a best friend.

I have kept to the convections of the genre Romantic Dramas by using the usual aspects that make this genre. 

- Two main character's of the opposite gender that fall in love. This is an absolute must in a Romantic Drama otherwise the film would be empty and wouldn't be a romantic drama.

-A series of events that try to keep them apart. This is important as it gives the audience a reason to feel sympathy for them and grow to like them as the main characters.

-Romantic music both fast paced and slow pased to fit mood of different scenes and to create a desired atmosphere

I have challenged the usual convections of a Romantic Drama by:

-Giving the ending an interesting twist from the usual happily ever after style. The usual ending of my genre is that the boy and girl are reunited and its a happy ending. My film ending however is different. My film ending is that the two mai character's go seperate ways after a disagreement. But later on toward the very end of the film the main character is at work and has to watch over a new co-worker and when he see her, he realises its the main female character and then the film ends there.

-My ending is a cliffhanger which leave the audience wanting to find out what happends which leave room for a sequel or will allow the audience to allow their minds to come up with an ending of their own from their own individual interpritation of the film.

For example:

-They are happy to see each other and instantly get back together.
-There is a negative reaction to her being there.
- They are happy to see each other but they have to rebuilt their relationships
-They aren't happy to see one another and tthrough out the next film they slowly become close again.

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The people in my text are: the two main characters; James played by Chris Wilkie and Rachel played by Kerry Watkins. 

My main male character James is a caring person and is fun to be with as which is shown by his warm expressions when with Rachel in the flashback, by him having photo's of her in his room and also by using a low angled shot when he is looking through the pictures to show how his head is up in the clouds.

The first time we see James in his room we see him as a typical teenage boy getting ready to go on holiday. He seem a little solom as he packs his stuff but overall a normal looking boy. But as he looks at his pictures of rachel we begin to see another sided to him.

The second side we see to him is when he is with Rachel in the flashback. He is happy and smiling  looking at Rachel lovingly like she is the only one in the world. This shows a more happy side to James. Showing the audience how warm and caring he is.

Rachel is shown to be a friendly and playful person by her smiling expression which is present for most of the flashback and in the photos, her clothing is laid back and bright to show she is outgoing and bright person and they suit her and the camera angel is at her eye level so we get a clear view of her. Showing that she and James are on the same level.

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

-Universal Studios - Knocked Up and Love Happens
- 21st Century Fox - Love and other Drugs and What Your Number?
-Columbia Picture's - 50 First Dates and 13 going on 30
-Paramount Picture - No String Attached and Failure to Lauch

Because they have similar film genres to my chosen one (as shown above) They concentrate on the aspect of love in their films as well as placing a slightly funnier edge to them. I have kept to the regulation rules of a rated 12 film as there is infrequent use of drugs (alcohol) and only brief use of sexual context which is very discreet.

4) Who would be the audience for your media product?
A typical audience member for my  media product would be a female between 13 and 30 years of age and a nationality of most-likely British or American. Example:

Name: Olivia Edgecomb
Age: 17
Nationality: British
Like to spend money on: Romantic novels and films, art equipment and Cd's (preferable pop or movie soundtracks).
Favourite films: 50 first dates, Cinderella story, enchanted, the notebook, love actually and twilight.
Favourite websites: Youtube and facebook
Favourite TV shows: Soaps.
Favourite music: Pop and movie soundtracks.

5) What elements of your text would attract the target audience?
The subject matter is based around teenage problems with love which is what almost all teenagers go through at one point or another. The use of teenage slang attracts the teenage generation more as they can sympathise with the characters. Using the actors to portray a typical boy meets girl stereotype i will gain alot of support for the characters from the target audience.

6)What have you learned about technologies from the process of making this product?
Film - filming effectively using a camcorder: re film every sequence till you feel that it is perfect. Editing the film sequences: using Coral to make the film sequences play together smoothly and make it look more realistic. Additional post-production skills: making the titles for the film informing the audience who the actors,producers and directors are.

7)Look back at you preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in progression to the full product?
I have learnt that the cuts between shots needs to be quick enough to keep the audience interested but no so quick that they can't understand what is going on. Also that the acting needs to be quite good otherwise the audience will break out of the spell of the film and struggle to become re-absorbed in the film. My preliminary task is alot more rough and lacks any real interest in the story. Whereas in my final product the editing is more smooth and professional, the acting is more realistic and the overall story is much more interesting. The preliminary task has an error as you can see the camera man's hand in the right hand side of the screen whereas in the final product there a no errors.

Cinematography: Eye level camera angle so that the audience are on the same wave lenght as the character. The camera frame's the actor placing him almost always central but sometimes to the side so that the audience focus on the character or their surrounding. The camera has no movement as it's kept in still with a steady cam so that any movements needed are smooth and professional. The ude of point of view shot puts the audience in the mind of the character which then cuts into the flashback.
Editing: changes from fast paced to slow paced to draw attention to important details in the film like the picture being found and the quick cut to a flashback so that the audience understand the picture's importance in the scene.
Storyline: Boy meets girl, they fall in love, go through events that test their love or events to get them together before ending with them together and happy or sometime appart and sad.

Audience Feedback

Here is some feedback from two people. One of the people who gave feedback fitted the target audience where as the other didn't like them. So that I could get feedback from my target audience aswell as someone who disliked my genre to see how to unitise them into watching my film.

I undertook the feedback given to me to make my opening more interesting to people who enjoy my genre and don't usually. I attempted to edit the sound at certain points in the film so that the audience could hear what the actors are saying over the sound of rushing water at my chosen setting. This was unsuccessful as I struggled to quiet down the river and amplify the actors voices. I also took out some of the credits so that my film didn't take too much of the audiences attention away from the opening. It has been improved but still has some of the credits playing inbetween shots of the film.

Evaluation

Question One:

In what ways does your product use the conventions of real media products?

• The first way I used the usual conventions for a Romantic Drama is by using the stereotypical boy meets girl storyline.
• Romantic drama stereotypically have a variety of chance meetings, which causes tension in the storyline.  I use this towards the end of the film where the characters have a change meeting at the male main characters wrokplace.
• I have challanged the usual convention of a Romantic Drama as my film has a cliff hanger ending. Whereas most films tend to have a difinitive good ending or bad ending this leaves the audience unsure as to if the main characters will get together or go seperate ways.

Question Two:

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

• The female main character is seen as a strong character as she has moved on from her holiday romance with the male main character and now has a new boyfriend. Which is unusual in films as usual the male character is the one who would have moved on.
• The male main character is seen as a more weaker character as in my film opening he asks his friend about the female main character showing that he is more stuck in the past in comparison to the female character. This is unusual as the male main character is usual the more stronger character and the female character weaker in comparison.

Question Three:

What kind of media insistutions might distrubute you media product and why?

• I think that a large American distabution company like Universal Studios might distrubute my media product because Universal are associated with Romantic films like Knocked Up.
• The object of a large distrubution company is to make money and romantic films tend to make money as they are quite popular with the teenage age group. Because around this age teenager are falling in love for the first time or entering romantic relationships.

Question Four:

Who would be the audiences for my media product?

• I think that the female gender would stereotypically be the most compatable audience for my film and its content. Reason why is that female audience are accosiated with liking romantic films that are more slow paced more then the male audience.
• I also think people between the age of 13 and 25 would be intresting in this film because the target audience is flagging up that they are becoming more adult as they are starting to watch films that relate to romance as well as horror.

Question Five:

What elements of your text would attract the target audience?

• An element which would attract my target audience is the actors because the two main characters would be around the same age group as the audience members so that the audience can relate to what the actors are going through because of the similarity of age between the characters and the viewers.
• Another element is the story and events that happen in the film. This is because the audience can relate to the course of events that happen in the film's story  from experience.

Question Six:

What have you learned about technology from the process of making the product?

• I have learned how to use online accounts that I can use to document and publish my film opening and the information related to the making and planning. Two examples of what I have used is Blogger and Vimeo.
• I used Blogger to document the ideas and the storyline of my film opening as well as the needed information of the characters. I used Vimeo to publish the film opening for viewing onto Blogger  as well as my preliminary task and storyboard.

Question Seven:

Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learned in the progession from it to the full product?

• I have learned how to add music to the film to help prevoke a desired emotion from the audience. I have also learned how to use titles to make the film look more proffessional and smooth.
• I have also learned how to make cleaner and more smoother cuts in the film to make the viewing experience more natural, for example the shot where the main character opens the car door and enters the car would have been a match on action done in four or five shots. I have also used an actual story behind the making of the film opening.

One Week With Rachel Final Film Opening

film - Tash and Matt from Tash Barrett on Vimeo.

This is the final product from all the research I have done to make a professional final piece that does not look shabby but well executed.

Costume Boards

Setting Board (Outdoors)

Pre Filming

Before stariting the filmopening I took a photo shoot of the main 4 characters of the story.

James played by Chris Wilkie.
Rachel played by Kerry Watkins.
Matt played by Michael Jones.

The photo shoot was successful as all the actor were enthusiastic and comfortable with each other and the cameras presence. They all were easy to get hold of and were nearly always free for filming.