2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
• There are a number of existing media texts that have inspired our A2 media project (link film) in a number of
ways. Different media products, sources and technologies have all had an impact on the way our film has been
shot which I will link appropriately throughout this evaluation.
• Our film was intended to be a comedy but instead the outcome had more of a ‘video diary’ feel to it. I feel that
the overall look of this film does not have the same effect as a comedy film like ‘Meet the parents’ Directed by
Jay Roach where we can see ourselves in Ben Stillers shoes as he is introduced to the parents of his girlfriend. We
can easily identify with the main character countless times throughout. That is, perhaps, the best thing about
this comedy which is what we tried to portray in our own short film. We knew that our target audience would be
between the ages of 16-20, this age group is profound to using public transport on a regular basis due to college
and work commitments so we knew that this particular market would be interested and be able to put
themselves into the film and again, be able to identify themselves with the main character, whom is meant to be
the 'normal' person in comparison to the rest of the characters we picked for the storyline. Again picking up on
the fact that we wanted the film to look like it was a point of view shot, as if we are the main character and we
felt that not many movies in the industry today portray their film in this manor. Most have several cuts to one
scene, each in different angles because they will use more than one camera to be able to smoothly cut to the
other camera. Another media product that uses this kind of method would be a TV games show for example;
celebrity juice. The layout on set is two desks one on either side of the host Keith Lemon facing towards the
audience, cameras set on both sides to create a fluid motion between each shot.
3. • We were also inspired by our favorite film ‘500 Days of Summer’ directed by Marc webb. Particularly a specific scene
towards the end when the main character is standing up on a bus and screams 'I hate this song!’. We felt that this
scene was relevant to our own ideas because the character reacts to the song that comes on through his earphones.
This is the idea we had in mind when the main character in our film reacts to all the noise on the train at the end.
• I’ve also researched a lot in to the kind of film that we wanted to produce which is available on my blog
http://50141322.tumblr.com. Experimenting with different media program's on the Mac computers which we were
provided with to do all our blog work, research and experimenting on. We had access to programs such as;
Indesign, Photoshop and Word. For the production of our film we used Final Cut Pro, a program we were all familiar
with using as we had each conducted a film for our course last year using the same format. Therefore we were no
strangers as to how to use the basic settings involved. We did need regular help from a tutor with some problems
we faced such as timings, layering sounds, and also we found that the lighting changed in some scenes.
‘500 Days of Summer’
4. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
• Before I started producing my film poster and double page spread I researched into many different genres of film for
example; comedy, thriller and action, to get an understanding of how production company's like Universal Pictures
and Dreamworks SKG go about creating the ancillary texts for their films. I also listed the codes and conventions of
both a double page spread , and a film poster.
• When researching the comedy genre, I noted certain things about the layout and design of film posters and double
page spreads. Step Brothers is a film that can be easily analyzed and has basic film language. Almost the whole film
is set in a household and almost all the sound in the film is diegetic. Not much editing is required as there are no
special effects and the camera work is basic, and concentrates on the relationship between the brothers. So when I
analyzed the poster for this film I found that the main image was of the two brothers in the form of a family
portrait. This instantly shows that the film is going to be focused on to be about them. The title and the starring
actors names are in bright bold lettering which stands out on the page.
• When making my film poster and double page spread I wanted to make sure they were all effectively linking
together and that they all had a re-occurring theme. I used images from a photo shoot we all arranged in the
photography studio at our college. We thought using our own primary sourced photographs would be a more
professional thing to do and this is something that is seen in the film industry. We thought that the quality of the
photos would to a much higher standard than ones we would have used from search engines like ‘Google’. We also
thought that using these images in our poster and DPS would mean that viewers would make that connection.
5. • I feel that both my ancillary texts and our final film all link well together. Showing a re-occurring theme that most
will be able to recognize. I also feel that my poster and DPS fit well in the chosen genre of comedy that we have
gone for. Colorful wording, but simple images are key in the codes and conventions of making ancillary tects for this
type on genre.
• I also feel that I have managed to design my posters appropriately for the target audience we are aiming towards
(16-20)
Double Page Spread Poster
6. What have you learned from your audience feed back?
• Audience feedback is key in the media industry, as the audience bring in the revenue and make a persons work
credible, it is also what makes a film popular or not, the more people that enjoy a film the more the message of it
gets spread. The aim of an editor/director/producer is to please their audience and these people are the reason for
making the film.
• Working together In a group was a definite advantage as it meant that we could all discuss on different decisions we
had to make. Things that could be altered like sound, camera angles, the costumes, and in general how we wanted
the film to look on screen. The value of each of our opinions meant we could produce exactly the film we were
hoping to achieve.
• We also faced numerous problems In the editing of our film as the files had corrupted when we imported them from
the camera memory on to the the mac books. This meant we needed help from tutors to get these files back in one
piece, which was extremely time consuming but it did mean we had a lot of people seeing our film whilst it was in
the editing stage. So we received a lot of feedback from this, which was extremely helpful as it was handy to have an
outsiders opinion on how certain things should look and what could be improved.
• Having feedback on my individual ancillary texts was also helpful as I was working by myself. Having little experience
in some of the programs that we had to use like Indesign meant I needed a lot of assistance when it cam to using
some tools to create different effects, especially for my title on the poster.
• I did my DPS in the form of an interview, I had questions answered by all three of the girls in my group. Unfortunatly
due to the problems we were facing with the corrupted files at the time that I had written the interview meant that
some of the answers were a lot more vague than I had intended.
• Apart from this one problem that I faced I do think that the feedback helped me to achieve texts that would be
appreciated by my target audience, making sure I had reached most of the codes and conventions I had previously
researched prior to making the poster and DPS.
7. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and
evaluation stages?
• Media technologies played an important role in the research, planning and evaluation stages of my project.
Mac books were the main technology that I used when making the produce for my individual blog -
http://50141322.tumblr.com because they have all the useful programs and software we needed to make our
ancillary texts and final short film.
• For all the experimenting stages of our short film we mainly used Photoshop. Using different tools helped us
gain experience in this program so when it came to creating our final product we were a lot more familiar with
how to create different products.
• When we first began our filming we used a Nikon D3100 which helped In getting that smooth, clear image we
wanted. But because it never came to our attention that we needed permission from the train station
manager, we had to reschedule our shooting day which meant we could no longer use the camera we were
using and had to use a camera with a different format. When editing we found no difference in the quality of
the picture or sound, but the files on the second camera were not compatible with the editing software we
were using which prolonged the whole stage of putting the film together. Eventually we were able to change
the files format so we were able to continue editing out film.
• Both cameras we worked with helped us achieve that ‘point of view’ shot we were hoping to capture as they
were both light weight cameras so were easy to maneuver around the train. A tripod was not needed as we
were holding the camera with a steady hand. Although a figrig would have been useful in capturing more of a
smoother shot yet being able to move around the confided space that we were working in unfortunately none
of these were available on the day we were shooting.
• For the editing stages of our film we used Final Cut Pro which we had had previous experience in from our AS
level media project. We had also prior to this project produced a short clip (available here) which we were
asked to make that didn’t contribute to our final mark but did help us to become more aware of how to use
Final Cut Pro.
• I also used Youtube and Tumblr which were extremely useful in the pre production stage
of out project. Which allowed me to organize all of my work and keep it all in one place so
there was no confusion.
8. In Conclusion…
In conclusion I am happy with My short film as well as my ancillary texts, I have put in
100% effort into making this project worthy of something you would see in the media
industry. Keeping a consistent theme throughout has helped me to build a ‘product’
out of my work. Over the past year I feel I have learnt a lot of new computing skills, I
can now produce high standard posters and magazine articles using Photoshop and
Indesign. I also have more knowledge on how to edit a short film together using the
tools on Final Cut Pro and compared to my AS level media project I feel my skills and
ability to think of and construct new ideas have developed dramatically.
