Evaluation question notes.

2. Q1: In what ways does your media products use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
When I was researching for my film opening, I studied: The Fault in
Stars, The Vow, and The Other Woman which all conform to the genre
romance. I gathered my information from YouTube trailers and film
openings.
I put together of some reoccurring conventions throughout these three
films and placed them into a PowerPoint, the main three conventions
often used are: location, a female lead character, a crisis which
challenges the relationship.
I chose not to challenge the conventions as I was only filming the first
two minutes. I felt that the first two minutes are significant in
establishing the genre, challenging the conventions would possibly
confuse the audience and it would only be in the first two minutes.

3.  Furthermore, the micro elements: mise-en-scene, editing, camerawork
and sound, are significant in order to establish the genre.
The editing for my film consisted of fading transitions of one shot into
the other, therefore creating a soft flowing film opening. The Fault in Our
Stars, for example, also employs fading transitions rather than cutting.
This is due to constant cutting transitions making the film appear more
fast-pace in comparison to a gentle flow.
Studying films such as: Sex and the City and Confessions of a Shopaholic,
I decided that a narrator would be a perfect method in order to give the
audience an insight of what has happened.

4. Q2: How does your media product represent
particular social groups?
Within my film opening, there are two social classes represented:
females and males. Firstly the costume and props display her being a
typical girly girl. Her room is brightly coloured matching her costume
and personality. I also planned to display woman as needing to rely on a
male figure, she has tantrums like a stereotypical female and she is
emotional. For example:
On the other hand, the male character is represented oppositely to the
female character. In public, he is the one placing his arm around her,
displaying how she is his. He places his hands in his pockets conveying
that he is the strong, dominant character. Several times throughout the
scene, he looks down towards her in admiration, also he winds her up,
resulting in the physical affection.

5. Q4: Who would be the audience for your media
product?
0 For my product, my primary audience is based at teenagers, particularly
the females who can relate to the content.
0 To the left is a screenshot of the audience feedback for my product, all
teenagers or a middle aged women. All comments were positive and
therefore acts as evidence as to whether my product attracts my target
audience.
0 I believe that teenage females can relate
the issues raised in the film and that’s the
reason as to why I decided to classify as a
12. As our theme has a strong terminal
illness theme, strong language and scenes
of brief and discrete nature, it could be
classified as either a 12 or 15. The film will
not be including strong nudity scenes,
frequent strong language or violence so
therefore it can be classified under a 15.
0 After studying films such as The Fault in
Our Stars and If I Stay with similar themes,
I realised that their classifications was
so my audience should be based around
this research.

6. Q5; How did you attract/ address your audience?
0 The mise-en-scene should be appealing to my target audience, therefore the
costume remained very laid back, causal and relaxing – something that teenagers
often lounge around in. The make-up was kept pretty simple with just eyeliner
and mascara on, nothing too dramatic for around the house. The characters
setting was place in a bedroom. It was very girly; looks of red colours, blankets,
photos with friends on the wall. A typical female teenage bedroom. The character
actions and body language was very laid back, something quite relatable. Her
costume and setting set her social class as the working class, her family are
wealthy and therefore she can have these nice items. A stereotypical teenager is
known to have mood swings or a little attitude, therefore we intend for our
character to throw a diary across the room in order to show attitude and
emotion. Stereo typically a romance film would be associated with females in
their teens and above, this is due to the actors used within the film. They are
usually young adults, the audience being at a similar age means they can easily
relate to the characters.
0 Our audience feedback appeared to be positive, the opening alone engaged the
audience and they were wanting to see the remainder of the film. I gathered this
feedback from the Our Last Christmas Facebook page.

7. Q6; What have you learnt about technologies from
the process of constructing this product?

8. Q7; Looking back at your preliminary task, what do
you feel you have learnt in the progression from it
to the full product?
0 When filming my preliminary task, there was no planning into what I was actually
filming. Two of my classmates were being filmed having a small conversation, however
with the lack of planning, it appears faked, forced and put on spot. If the conversation
was planned, it then could have flowed and looked natural.
0 Furthermore, looking back at my preliminary task and comparing it to my film
opening, my quality of footage has vastly improved. My two shots, were filmed at an
angle rather than being straight on, this could be due to the fact the camera wasn’t
locked down on a tripod. When filming for my film opening, a tripod was used in a
majority of the shots, and the quality of the shot is exceptionally better. Holding the
camera myself resulted in a lot shaky footage, which simply looked awful.
0 My editing skills have majorly improved. The preliminary task was edited using iMovie,
and it was one of the first times actually editing many shots together. For my
preliminary task, I had a lack of footage for when it came to editing, I didn’t think I
would need back-up footage incase a shot was poorly filmed. I simply filmed a shot and
assumed it would be okay; this made my editing task extremely difficult and was why
my lack of footage was evident in my finished video. From this mistake, I knew that
when I film I need to ensure I continue re-shooting a shot until it was perfect, therefore
it would flow together when edited. For the diary scene, it took days of re-shooting in
order to get a shot correct, however all this paid off in the end.
The camera was different