2. In what ways does your Media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Convention of media
products
Use, Develop,
Challenge
How your media product does that? Evidence
Narrative Device Develop I have used linear narrative as all the events in my story occurs chronologically. It starts where everything is
fine and is going on very smoothly. Start of the day, the main protagonist going inside the shop. In the
middle, the main events occur. This is when the main protagonist meets the love of her life and falls in love at
the first sight. At the end, they become friends. All these events have occurred chronologically so the
audience can understand the story very easily.
Introducing characters Use I introduced the main protagonist of my film, Anca. However, you do not get to see her face, you can only
hear her voice and see her from behind. This builds up the focus as the audience want to see who the main
protagonist. We then see the shopkeeper. Her friendly behaviour towards Anca tells the audience that she is
not a bad character. It also shows their relationship within the community. Near the end, we meet the hero of
the film. Keeping him till the end creates anticipation in the audience to know who the love of her life is.
Introducing Setting/Time Develop My first shot begins with the camera going upwards in the sky and shows the sunrise. It conveys to the
audience that it is shot in morning time. I felt that showing the sunrise is a good way to start my movie. For
the setting, I have used the borough of Barnet. I know this area very well therefore filming here is more easy.
I have used the charity shop of Oxfam as my main setting in the film. I always go in the shop and know the
people very well so they allowed me to use their shop for my film. The shop makes my film look very realistic.
Creating the mood Develop The sunrise shot creates a very warm and happy mood which suits the romantic genre of my film. The
atmosphere inside the shop is very relaxed which again suits the romantic genre.
Titles Develop The titles appear in red. I have chosen the colour red as it’s a colour symbolising love a passion to go with
my romantic genre. The name of my film appears big n bold compared to the rest of the titles. This helps the
audience see the title clearly and they get to know what they are watching. I have used normal ariel font so
the audience can read my titles easily.
Music Use For the beginning shot of sunrise, I have used soft and slow music which matches with the shot and my
romantic genre. I have used some diagetic sound, when the main protagonist is entering the shop. Diagetic
sound makes the shot look much more realistic. In the diagetic sound, we can hear the windy weather,
people walking and normal conversations. The audience can relate to such sounds as these are everyday
sounds.
3. How does your media product represent particular social group?
In my film, the main protagonists are middle-aged people. The working girl is 29 years old and the boy is over
30.I also have an aged woman as the shopkeeper in my film as mostly aged people are the ones who work at
charity shops. I have chosen this age-group because I wanted to focus on a different age-group other than
teenagers. I have chosen a white girl and a mixed raced boy. This makes my film look more realistic because
nowadays all ethnicities are equal and people now are not too racist. The boy is a manager at a restaurant
therefore he is dressed up in a simple long coat and comes across as little strict. The girl is working at a
newspaper industry thus she is always interested in books and reading.
Few of the shots are put in deliberately so the audience can see clearly what is being portrayed. I have used a
long shot when the girl and boy first meet. This shot shows bot of them and the audience can see that they both
belong to different ethnicities and come from different background but still love makes its way to unite lovers.
The main message is about love and people connecting despite having different background and nationality. In
this shot, the music gets slower and we can hear their dialogues more. This makes the audience focus more on
what they are saying and also this gives more importance to the characters.
4. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
History – Cinepix Films Properties (CFP) was founded in 1962 by John Dunning and Andre Link. CFP was a
leading Canadian independent motion picture company releasing both English and French language films and
making 10-12 budgeted titles annually. Cinepix Films Properties was renamed to Lions Gate Films on 12th
January, 1998. Its first major box office success was American Psycho in 2000, which began a trend of
producing and distributing films too controversial for the major American studios. On 17th October, 2005, Lions
Gate Entertainment acquired Redbus Film Distribution for $35 million and became Lionsgate UK on 23rd
February, 2006.
Lionsgate Films (formerly known as Cinepix Film Properties) is a Canadian – American. It is largest and most
successful mini-major film studio in North America. It focuses mainly on foreign and independent films and has
distributed various of film series such as The twilight Saga(partially), The Hunger Games and, The
Expendables.
Their list of existing work is what persuaded me to choose that company as my distributor. They usually choose
films that are independent that would appeal to specific audiences. Also, their varieties of series for Twilight and
The Hunger Games look very unique and all have been very successful. Recently, lionsgate released The
Hunger Games: Catching fire on 22nd November, 2013 which grossed $158 million at the US box office. The
next film in the Hunger Games franchise is, Mockingjay: Part 1 which is scheduled to be released this year in
2014.
5. Who would be the audience for your media product?
During my planning process, I had to think of my target audience. I was going to chose younger demographic
(teenagers) but then I thought to do something challenging and focus on different group. I then decided to use
middle-aged people as my target audience but that was not enough. I had to had something more to it. Then I
decided to have an aged woman in my film, this would help my film look more entertaining and little humorous as
old people sometimes say or do funny things which others find amusing. But my main focus was on middle-aged
people. I didn’t know much about them, so I decided to interview one of work collogue who is middle-aged.
What are your hobbies and interests?
My hobbies are reading fiction books and
newspapers. I have lots of interests such
as playing tennis and outdoor games, I
love going out for dinner with my family
and I also love getting into relationships.
That’s always fun.
What genre of music do you prefer?
I prefer listening to Jazz and Opera, its
always very smooth and relaxing to
listen to. I also enjoy electronic rock and
contemporary music as its classy and
just nice to hear than loud and fast
music.
What are your favorite films?
I loved Memento and Inception, those
were very nicely written and presented
in a very subtle way. I also liked
hangover, that one was very funny and
got a lot of laughter out of me. My most
favorite ones are The Notebook and
P.S. I love You. These both are very well
written and very emotional stories, it
made me cry but I love to watch
romantic films.
What are your plans for the future?
Well I am really enjoying my job at the
moment as a chef. My plan is to get
promotion and get a higher position.
Look after my family. Get into a
relationship soon and have kids and
enjoy my family time with everyone.
6. How did you attract/address your audience?
To attract my target audience, I choose romantic genre as that’s the age where people fall in love or want to
meet their soul mate, similarly my protagonist is also in search of her soul mate. So I thought that this idea will
grab my target audiences attention and they will be interested to come and watch my film.
To address my audience, I have used certain props and accessories for my audience to feel connected to the
protagonists. For The main protagonist, I have shown her in usual clothing with a handbag and an overcoat.
This shows her as a everyday girl and many of the female middle-aged audiences any feel related to the way
she is dressed and the way she carries herself in the film. The boy is shown wearing a long overcoat, short hair
and comes across as being very simple. Similarly, many of the male demography will also relate to his way of
dressing and some may also relate of his sincere personality. The shopkeeper is shown as simple and is
dressed as a normal aged-woman would dress. Her grey hair and certain accessories she is wearing, for
example, a watch and a necklace, shows her age and also shows that old people also like to dress up and wear
matching accessories. The slow and romantic music inside the shop matches with the genre and also
reinforces a romantic feeling within the audiences as this reminds them of the genre. The setting of the shop is
quite which also tells the audience that it’s a charity shop and mostly middle-aged people and older people go
in there and not younger people.
7. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of
constructing this product?
When creating this film, I have familiarised myself with Final Cut Express, an editing program for Macs. I discovered
many new things when learning how to use it. I learnt how to change the speed, duration, altering colours and sound
levels, I had to get grips with all these. At first it was difficult but then I got used to it.
I also used audio networks for my sound, a website with a range of music pieces and types of sounds. This didn’t require
a lot of knowledge about the website but I just wanted to create a piece of music that would set up the right mood for my
film. I picked a soft music piece to suit my romantic genre and it also matched with the sunrise shot in my film.
During the production stage, I used a canon camera, this was an equipment which I didnt use before so I learnt during
filming how to operate it.
Canvas
Timeline
ViewerFinal Cut
Express
8. Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do
you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
During the production, I have learnt about different aspects which go into it such as mise-en-
scene, character representation, effects of shots when creating an opening scene. This is
mainly to introduce the protagonist and the antagonist and to set the scene in place. Also to tell
the type of film it is e.g genre, independent or mainstream cinema etc.
For example, with this project, I discovered the importance of making the audience entertained
so they continue to watch your film. During the continuity exercise, I had learnt how to use Final
Cut Express which was very useful when doing my film production. We had lots of mid-shots in
the continuity editing which made it more easier for me and made me understand clearly of how
to take such shots and also how to look after my equipment during the filming. Before the
continuity editing task, I had done another task where I had to make a scene exactly the same
from Life of Mars. For my film, I used my knowledge which I had gained when doing the Life On
mars exercise, I used the sunrise shot which is very similar from a sun shining shot from Life
On Mars.
Overall, I have learnt that an opening sequence requires a lot more than just titles. During the
opening sequence, the audience needs to be interested in either the characters or the storyline.
. All these tasks and exercises which I had done before my filming helped me a lot during my
production as it made my work much more easy and doable.
