Research, planning and production is complete for "The Longing". Now it is on to the Evaluation stage, where our group must assess how successful our media product is. This is the first question in our evaluation. :)

1. By Jack Archer
Evaluation Question 1...

2.  For our genre of social realism, these were the conventions
that we wanted to either adhere to, or challenge:
 Locations are either mainly urban or in the suburbs.
 Use of Non- professional actors.
 Music from the era (i.e. Present day).
 The plot should have a realistic approach/ perspective to lives of those
concerned.
 Having characters that appear to be in the lower working classes (i.e. In
the D2/ E income bracket).
 Evidence of the exploration of wider social issues through the
emotional or dramatic stories of characters.
 Possible erosion of regional identities
 The inclusion of both humour and seriousness and also triumph over
adversity.

3.  Generally, our locations were conventional to the genre, as we included
shots in a high street environment and also a city centre park. Thus, we
were able to optimise our interpretation of expressing various
ideologies.
 Also, the majority of our actors (excluding Liam Wilkinson and Rosie
Jones) did not have much experience of acting. All of our actors
certainly did not have any experience in filming. Therefore, as they are
not professional actors (i.e. Are paid for their service) we have met the
convention of using non- professional actors.
 Furthermore, we used modern music to reflect the setting of the film,
as we produced a rendition of a rendition (!) of the song “We Own It”
from the film “Fast and Furious 6” (2013), consequently keeping our
opening sequence conventional to the genre.

4.  In addition, I feel that our narrative has adhered to the convention of it
being realistic particularly due to the rise of peer pressure and bullying. As
Laura joins the gang to initially make new friends, she is then peer
pressured into committing criminal offences such as theft. Which is
possibly a common situation for people in the working class.
 What's more, I feel that our narrative/ opening sequence explores the
wider social issues within society quite well. The inclusion of bullying, fear
and peer pressure are common issues that arise and are experienced by
people from all walks of life and therefore, I believe that Laura in our
narrative is relatable to many people as well, as our audiences are able to
decide whether to actively consider their viewpoint on these issues for
social interaction, or simply gain personal identity from Laura/ The
opening sequence (according to Blumer and Katz’s uses and gratifications.)
 Finally, I believe we have shown people from various classes as according to
the Income brackets, if the characters were actual people, the gang
members and Laura would mainly be categorised as those in the D2/ E
income bracket (the lower working class) and the policeman for example
would be seen as middle/ lower middle class (the B/C1 income brackets).

5.  Most opening credits follow this common
conventional order:
 Name of studio
 Production Company
 Producers/ Directors
 Starring...
 Film Title
 Casting Director
 Music
 Production designer
 Film Editors
 Directors of Photography
 Producer
 Director
 (Based on... True story/events, the novel by etc.

6.  For our production “The Longing” we in a way
challenged the convention of opening credit order.
This is because throughout our research, planning and
production, we used the film “This is England” for
inspiration and subsequently, we used a similar
opening title sequence to “This is England”. This was
mainly because this film is of the same genre as our
film.
 Despite this not following the convention, I don’t think
that the order is necessarily important, as long as the
order makes sense and ‘flows’.

7.  Although the script was limited due to the majority of the opening
sequence being overlaid with our rendition of “We own It”, I feel that our
script could have been improved either by including more serious and/ or
humorous text or even have sections of semi- improvised dialogue in order
to make character interaction appear more natural and realistic.
 Following on from this, through either the script, iconography or shot type
the opening sequence could have introduced more political/ social issues
such as those relevant to race and cultural differences, as our production
included people of different ethnicities.
 Furthermore, I feel that we also should have included more hand- held
shots in order to promote the ideologies relevant to our female protagonist
in particular, and aid to connote certain emotions too.
 Generally however, although I think that the genre social realism is
appropriate for our opening sequence, as our narrative includes criminal
offences driven by peer pressure, I think that the conventions of the genre
crime should have been considered as well, with its conventions also.

8.  Here are the two main theories that applied best with “The
Longing”:
AUTEUR THEORY: As this theory derives from the idea that a film
reflects a Director’s vision and is a unique idea, this shows that our production
is also unique, especially as we have a female protagonist as our main character
and our production goes against common conventions of our genre.
HEGEMONY THEORY: Due to the nature of our narrative,
Hegemony is also relevant to our production, particularly as we have a female
protagonist passive audiences (such as people in the lower income brackets)
would initially believe the dominant ideologies present in the film, such as
women can achieve triumph over adversity like men can.