A level media studies evaluation

1. Introduction
After having completed extensive primary research into the codes and conventions for each of my media
products, I have chosen to apply the skills and knowledge I have gained into creating my short film , postcard and
website under the heavy influence of the comedy genre conventions, alongside other notable ones such as the
mockumentary style in the short film and the feature film conventions in regards to my website. The short film is
supposed to represent the common man as the victim to the modern consumerist society and their exploitations
and disregard for anything but profit.
All of my media products share the same motif of the box, as it represents the theme of exploitation throughout
the film due o it contain old and hazardous items that shouldn’t be released to the public, yet it being sold to local
neighborhoods outside of the city. The products are also connected through the similarity imagery, as it allows the
audience to associate and consume the brand as a whole.
The short film engages with the audience as it belongs to the comedy genre, one of the most universally preferred
one by the four quadrant tent-pole audiences. The poster communicates to the audience due to its mysterious
nature and visually appealing color scheme. Lastly the website is quite straightforward which makes it easily
accessible to all audiences due to its simplicity as all the necessary information is located in the single menu
header.
For the project I had utilized many different technologies for the creation of my media products. For the short film
I had using the standard filming hardware and the Vegas Pro editing system for software later during post-
production. The software I had employed for my poster is Adobe Photoshop, while for the website I had used the
online platform Wix.

2. My A level media studies short film The Salesman to a large extent uses the conventions of comedy and mockumentary
filming styles to its advantage as it takes their strengths and combines them into a light-hearted social commentary. It
applies the visual comedy style, known as slapstick that is known for its hyperbolic nature as one of its most famous films
and one of the inspiration was the worldwide acclaimed Monty Python and the Holy Grail, through the mise-en-scene such
as the characters costumes and physical appearance as well as the exaggerated make-up use to display the harmful nature
of the products the corporations attempt to sell on a daily basis in the modern industrial consumerist society. As for the
mockumentary codes and conventions present in the film, which were influenced by the BBC produced ground breaking
series The Office, as they are present through the constant use of the hand held camera style, the on the spot filming which
caused regular sound and light changes and the reflections of the camera man. The film also has a satiric elements as it is
light-hearted tone and easy-going characters however as the plot progresses it becomes a critic of the modern culture which
can be seen through the main storyline and character actions an motivations. The entire film follows a mainstream narrative
structure, which is well suited to Todorov’s equilibrium theory of how first there is equilibrium followed by disequilibrium
after an important event and finally the film is resolved with a new equilibrium created. The editing and sound are also
aiming to follow well-established generic features of their respective genre, such as the reduced amount of cuts to mimic
the live action style suited to mockumentary alongside the textual non-diegetic features formed to make a quick
establishment of characters and location and the cheerful sound which is supposed to amplify the superficial tone and
storyline of the film.
As the film is supposed to be a criticism of the consumerist society we are enraptured by in a day-to-day basis, it shows
awareness of the growing social problems created by the ever-increasing gap between the rich and the poor which is fueled
by the exploitation of the corporations, where everyone aspires to become successful over-night instead of building a career
showing the cultural changes influenced by this inequality as the people have accept the disregard in the consumerist-
oriented society and instead of combating the issue they wish to become one of business leaders themselves creating further
social strain. Therefore the social group presented is the common man of the 21st century so he can realize that he is being
leeched on by the pressure of the consumerist culture supported by the businesses and the upper class who through still
selling the wasteful products wish to maintain the status quo.

3. The postcard also follows the codes and conventions of short film posters as it utilizes on main image to interest the
audience followed by the basic essential information surrounding it to brief the audience and be eye-catching and
visually interesting. It follows the codes of comedy posters due to its first unknown meaning if the box, which is revealed
after the film, as it intrigues the audience and uses a light color scheme in order to send a light and positive tone is also
appealing as the pink and white contrasts the black background to created emphasis on the box. It uses the graphical
feature of the films rating in order to inform the audience the age requirements, however sing its suitable for children I
can be interpreted as a family comedy. The critics reviews are placed on opposite side to construct visual balance within
the film. For the masthead and tagline I had used same font, a non-traditional one in order to appeal to the younger
generations. Lastly the bottom of the page there is the cast and crew which familiarizes the audience with the people who
made the film, creating a fan base for future productions.
The website also uses traditional codes and conventions in order to be easily accessible to the audience and appealing
due to its easy navigation and contrasting color scheme. It included the means of communication between the production
company and thee fans through the bottom area which promotes establishing relations, furthermore the social media
shortcuts which allow sharing amongst the consumer is located in the top right corner so its instantly visible yet not
invasive. The one menu on the side is located there in order to compliment the main image yet still be a visible source of
information for the potential consumers as it allows them to see the film, synopsis, additional posters, cast and crew and
merchandise, while using the blue color to add variety. The codes and conventions are seen through the use of the main
photo which is centered to be the eye-catching feature with everything around it to be complimentary and informational
additions.

4. For my final media products I have designed them to become an intertwined
project that is much more meaningful when consumed fully by the consumer
instead of making them cross-promotional single pieces of work. The film and
the ancillary products work of each others strengths and improve each other
through similar features.
The film, postcard and website are connected firstly through the production
company logo, placebo films. This simple link ensures that all three media
products are all under the same publisher making them trademarked. The film
within the eye is supposed to represent the films self-awareness of the social and
cultural decay present.
The box is the main motif present throughout all three products, being the
selling point foe the poster and website. It has symbolic value as it represents the
exploitation of the corporations as they believe through have a pleasant exterior
they can sell hazardous products for high prices, however it can also represent
the current state of the consumerist society as on the outside no one is taking
actions as all the problems seem to be locked within and unspoken of which
helps maintain the abusive treatment. The black background present in the
poster and website is used to connote the underlying darker themes of the film
that are not visible at first sight.
The ancillary products are much more closely connected as they are there to
emphasize and promote the film, thus they share the same main image and
background conventions. Regarding the color scheme all three products present
the front the superficial light tone of the film through its vibrant composition.

5. One of the most important aspects of filmmaking is reflecting n the audience feedback and using it progress on self-
improvement as a director in order to make higher quality films as the career goes on. I have used the online digital
survey application “Survey Monkey” to quickly and with high response rates receive the feedback from the
audience that I have selected, due to their extensive experience with modern media and film, to attend the film
premier. Ione of the most important dangers to avoid is the “Directors Tunnel Vision” which prevents them from
taking audience feedback into consideration due to negligence or self-indulgence. Through attempting to create an
unbiased questionnaire I had conducted my test marketing which after seeing the results and using hindsight I can
recognize in which segments I could have improved the film.
After having analyzed the feedback diligently I have defiantly seen in which ways I could have improved the film.
Firstly the audience could recognize and appreciate the use of familiar genre conventions they have encountered in
comedy and mockumentary films. The test audience also mostly agreed that the strongest aspects of the film were
the comedic aspects, and strong acting performances, while on the other hand they though the main issue was the
inconsistent sound and lighting at certain time due to filming on location. Due to this I have learned that it is better
to place more emphasis on style while creating films that follow the main subject instead of over-relying on the
codes and conventions.
The audience had also commented on my other media products, the postcard and website, agreeing that they do
compliment the nature of the film well. However in regards to the website they believe it had too dark of a color
scheme, making it not fit in with the tone of the film and that it had to add a few additional features and better
organization be more visually pleasing. On the other hand the audience believe that the poster was the most
thorough of all my media products. These criticisms have assisted me in noticing my lack of color scheme
awareness and the lack of additional content that could have been added.
Sound and
lighting
46%
Made the
themes
more
explicit
Storyline
10%
Editing
10%
Acting
7%
What do you believe the
film could have improved?

6. Due to the representation of my film the main audience will mostly consist of the younger
generations which have are knowledgeable in using the internet and have at least one social
media account. Through treating them as my main audience I could release the short film on
Facebook, the largest social media platform, which would increase its exposure by a large extent
and would also cover other potential audiences that belong to different age groups. Distribution
through Facebook means having minimal costs, unlike releasing hardware CD copies, and the
reach to the younger audiences is guaranteed as most of the users on Facebook fall within the age
category of 15-30.furtheremore it would also promotion amongst the consumers as they would be
able to share it with their families and friends, and even on other platforms such as twitter.
Another option is distribution through popular online video platforms such as Youtube and
Vimeo, as the distribution costs are low and they would be in a position to reach a larger amount
of potential audience. Youtube is the largest platform available thus through taking advantage on
the traffic it has, it could expose the film to the largest audience possible, however there are many
issues with the platform itself as the film could be unjustly taken down due to some unfavorable
reviews or the risk of having it fade to irrelevance precisely because of the large audience traffic.
Vimeo is a better alternative due to its more Niche nature as it appeals specifically to amateur
filmmakers looking to be endorsed by production houses, therefore it has a more culturally
profound and film oriented audience present however that also means there is a lower amount of
total potential audience the film can reach on the platform.
Another alternative would be applying the short film to local film festivals to have it be judged by
a veteran film-going audience that is familiar with the codes and conventions of multiple genres.
An example would be the Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival, as it accessible due to it
being multi-regional and due to its popularity as it has been ongoing for a few years. However
ultimately I will not choose that as my distribution method as it doesn’t reach a large enough
audience and because their specific audience which has a higher average age is not the one I have
selected to be my target audience group.

7. Throughout the A level media studies project I have developed a higher understanding of the integrated technologies
that I needed to apply to my coursework and over time I have gained the skills to do so. I was relatively new to the
hardware and software that I had used, with most of my experienced coming from my last years AS level media
coursework, which was much more software and online technologies reliant and had neglected the hardware aspect.
The Salesman was my first experience using a professional camera so initially it was difficult to calculate how much
time would be needed for the shooting of the film, thus I had created my shooting schedule after completing extensive
research using internet articles and YouTube tutorials in order to prepare myself for the production of the film. During
the first shooting I had experienced issues with the cameras focus and therefore had to reshoot some of the scenes again.
It was also hard adjusting the sound and lighting due the constant changing surroundings as I had focused on following
the mockumentary codes and conventions. Another new hardware that I had learnt to manipulate has been the tripod,
which would sometimes not be locked properly due to my inexperience.
Regarding the presentation software I had mostly used Microsoft PowerPoint due to my extensive experience with,
therefore it was within my comfort zone. The designs it has to offer were visually pleasing and it was simple to
manipulate and edit. I also had my first experience with Prezi which I found to be more exciting when creating
presentations due to the animation capabilities and visually pleasing designs, however it had also been much more
difficult to utilize properly due to its more loose structure which had created certain issues such as attempting to make
the text fit correctly while making it clearly visible.
Throughout the development I also had been subjected to a large amount of online technologies that helped make the
coursework much more efficiently presented and knowledgeable due to the extensive research I had completed using
the internet. I had also conducted research through the use of a survey platform “Survey Monkey” which helped me
gather necessary information before and after the filming process, in order to know the needs of my audience as well as
have their feedback. For uploading the presentations I had used Slideshare which was easy due to its simple navigation
and straightforwardness, and finally embed the presentations onto my blog platform which is known as Wordpress,
which was initially hard to make a visually appealing template but regarding the uploading had been direct and didn’t
create any difficulties.

8. Another online technology I experienced was the website creating program Wix which I had used to develop the website for
The Salesman. Overall Wix is easy to use due to its simple overlay and navigation, however I had experienced issues with it
due to certain limitations being there such s only being able to have one menu header and there were also too many self-
promotional pop-up advertisements which deterred me from the site. I had personally found it difficult to make the website
visually pleasing due to the challenge I had with creating the correct space rations and blending a good color scheme.
Regarding the creation of my poster I had used the software Adobe Photoshop which had been much easier due to having
experience with it from my AS coursework project. Therefore I was familiar with all the necessary Transformations such as
rotate and resizing of the main image and had also been able efficiently add the graphical features I had desired to, the starts
and reviews. I had also successfully manipulated the color grading of the image in order to make the box more vibrant and
eye-catching. The font I have used, Pretext, are of non-traditional design in order to appeal to the younger audiences is also
specific as I could not mimic it whole creating the website. There were only small issues regarding the placing of the graphical
features such as the logo and the audience tag due to the initial inconvenience in scaling them.
During the post-production of the film I had been exposed to a completely new editing software, Vegas Pro, which had
created some challenges I was ultimately unable to tackle such as the flashes of inconsistent lighting and certain audio spikes.
However I was also able to cut and edit my shots without much difficulty due to the software's practical design. It had also a
wide variety of non-diegetic sounds which I had to choose to my opening and credits, as well as all the editing techniques I
wished to apply such as fade. There was also low rendering time and all the shots had been high quality just as when they
had been filmed. There was no need for color grading due to the live action filming style I had opted for which reduced the
amount of editing I had to perform. Overall I am satisfied with the outcome however it could have been made much more
professional if I had sufficient experience beforehand.