In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our media production uses all forms and conventions that we studied for the different sci fi genres of different films. We have added our own personal modern twist to it with a lot more special effects that we didn’t see in the sci fi films we researched. We have used titles in our production; we used a black and red theme to keep to our sci fi genre. The music we choose fits in nicely with our film production as well as our genre. We chose to use a Hardcore Rock genre and took music from an unsigned band called The Take Over. We decided as a group that our opening sequence would leave a suspense feeling amongst the audience. This was our hook to reel in the audience and make them want to watch more. Throughout our opening sequence we have used a lot of special effects on the film, which defines the production to the sci fi genre that we aimed to make it. We developed the music by dragging out the beginning of the song with the guitar rhythm going through and then cut the music so it then went straight to the vocals. We also dimmed down the music that is being played throughout the opening sequence so we could add special effects along with the “northern line” that we recorded at a Camden station, which fitted in beautifully with our production. We did meet a lot of challenges in the recording process and also editing. When recording certain scenes in London at Nelson Column, we where asked to stop filming by police, as we were breaking the law to film on the national art gallery. Luckily we had got the shots that we already needed so were still able to use the shots and we didn’t use the illegal sequence. Also when approaching editing we had difficulties adding the still pictures that we had taken onto our opening sequence. This was a problem, as the programme we used which was Adobe Premiere Plus couldn’t find the picture, and we had to locate the still shots ourselves. Another challenge we found when creating our open sequence was that we were told later on after we had filmed and uploaded our production was that the brief actually stated that only non copyright music was allowed and we weren’t actually allowed to use a signed band, which caused a lot of problems for us. We had to change the order of our film and also finding a unsigned band proved difficult. Luckily I knew a few people who where in unsigned bands who had gave me their album to listen to and were able to use their tracks for our productions, which in the long run made the production a lot better than our previous artist and songs of choice.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
When we originally planned to make our production we were aiming at it the 18+ audiences as we were going to make it a lot more horror instead of sci fi, action. Our initial audience group now is the teen to adult audience who like films that play around with their heads, and it takes time for them to suss out what is happening. We felt that by doing this it wasn’t only categorising one type of audience and would allow a variety of people of different ages to watch the film instead. Also its one of those films that you may want to watch over and over again as you may have missed one part of the film the first time and then when it gets to the end its all clicked into place. As for social groups I don’t think there is a specific group who we could target this too, as sci fi is perceived as a “geek” genre but we have made our film modern and to appeal to a lot of different social groups but keeping with the sci fi genre. There is however a separation from the people who are seen to be running and the girl whose face we do not see. It’s a separation of rich and poor, however the poor who are seen running are there for rich girl when her dreams start coming true and believe in her. I really believe that our final production fitted the genre and has reached our target audience we had expected.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
When looking at our production I can see there being a huge market and appeal for it. EM media is a distributor for East midlands films, so maybe if there was to be a South East distributor we could take our media product to them. I could see them distributing our media product as it has the key features that are needed in a film. In our opening sequence we have a lot of action, suspense and mystery everything an opening sequence to a film needs is in our media product. There are also a variety of independent cinemas around this area, we could take our media product to them and see if they would exhibit our film for a percentage of the profits. When researching the UK film council, I noticed that digital release is extremely popular now. By going to the film council and showing them our production they could grant us a digital release. Other key ways I have noticed that other films become successful is by using Hollywood stars in their films. By keeping filming short and locations cheap, which is what Working Title, do, we could follow their footsteps and as a group distributors such as Universal may distribute our media.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our opening sequence would be suitable for the 12A audience.
“12A – Suitable for 12 years and over. No one younger than 12 may see a ‘12A’ film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult. No one younger than 12 may rent or buy a ‘12’ rated video or DVD. Responsibility for allowing under-12s to view lies with the accompanying or supervising adult.”
The main audience for our opening sequence would be teenagers and adults who like a film they can watch again and again and say, “I didn’t see that before”. It also involves a lot of action as well. I don’t think it would be suitable for anyone younger than 12 as the storyline is pretty complex and children would find it scary and hard to understand what with aliens and the complex storyline we have to go with our product.
In our production we represent the rich from the poor, however instead of the poor being portrayed as crazy, mental and unfit we have changed the social status for the rich to be seen as this. We see the poor come to the rich girls needs when she tells them exactly what it is she saw in her dreams and helps to stop it from happening.
How did you attract/address your audience?
The music we choose to use in our media production was of the Hardcore rock genre. It fitted in nicely with our genre and theme of the opening sequence. The use of “danger” signs shown at the beginning of the titles with special effects added and flashing of it instantly is drawing our audience in and preparing them to know what is going to happen. The shots that were used for our main characters in the opening sequence were to not allow the audience to instantly know the characters straight away we wanted to tease them and play on their minds with the thought that they don’t know what these two characters are running from or who this girl in the high heeled shoes is, which we created an enigma. We then reveal at the end of the opening sequence the young girl in the high-heeled shoes face and it reveals that everything that we have just previously seen was what she had dreamed off. We choose to use London as our location as it the capital of England and as we are a English based film production and our film is being shown to the English market we knew they would instantly know the famous landmarks we had chosen to film also this would attract foreigners who would recognise the London landmarks we had chosen to film. The use of mise en scene used throughout the opening sequence has defined the rich from the poor instantly. With the girl in the high-heeled shoes showing the rich side with the other two main characters in tracksuit bottoms and t-shirts looking scruffy and poor. By setting the two divides we thought this would attract both social groups in.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
When creating my media product I have learnt a lot about technologies. I had never even heard of adobe premier plus before, and then had to learn quickly and promptly on how to use the programme. I did this by using it a lot and also looking on Youtube websites, which have tutorial videos on how to use the programme, also using the guides that where provided by the school, I found this helped me a lot.
I was already familiar with using a camera and camera shots as I had previously studied media studies for three years before hand so I didn’t have a problem with constructing them to create my product. I feel that as I had the most knowledge on the camera and could see what shots would work well in my mind before filming I took charge of most of the directing.
Even though I’m not a stranger to media terms I did learn a few more. Also I hadn’t even blogged before, however, picked it up really easy.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I feel the preliminary task really was my stepping-stone of learning adobe premier plus. If I had gone straight to creating my opening sequence I could have seriously ruined the film. But I learnt from my mistakes in the preliminary task and was able to not make the same ones in the main task, which I why I feel have come out at a high standard. I learnt to create meaning through editing by adding special effects and slowing things down it added a dramatic effect. If we were to speed the film up it would make the film seem more energetic as such.
No comments:
Post a Comment