2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
We constructed a media product of a film opening,
which had to last a maximum of two minutes.
We agreed to have both of our stories set to be on the
genre of action. For our first option, we chose an
action/ thriller opening entitled Imposter. This
introduced us to a businesswoman who was about to
hand over the immigrant to the antagonist. In mid-
productivity, a slight twist is about to be revealed.
Instead, the transition of the immigrant turns into a
conflict.
3. Our second option was an action/ superhero film
opening. This introduced us to the protagonist and
antagonist only. We did decide to include flashbacks
of the previous protagonist; however, due to the
reduced amount of timing, we could not film any
flashbacks. This would also mean that there would be
an additional amount of editing.
Our media product uses a variety of camera angles to
connote the sense of speed in our action opening. We
started our opening with an establishing shot and pan
shot to show the location.
4.
5. From then, we used some long and medium shots of
the chase-taking scenes. We then started to use closer
shots, such as medium shots.
6. We changed how we were going to present the credits
on screen by placing the credits next to the characters,
whilst acting. We were influenced by this technique
used in Doghouse. However, we did not use the exact
technique, because when they introduced the credits
with the characters, they paused for some time before
continuing the action.
7.
8. We did not use low-key lighting because we filmed our
entire film opening in daylight. This meant that it
would have been harder to represent the antagonist
because we assumed that the audience would be able
to easily identify the antagonist this way.
The protagonist is represented as a superhero through
the use of the effects made and shown from the scar.
The P.O.V shots were used to indicate that this
character was the protagonist.
9. How does your media product represent particular
social groups?
All the actors in our media product are female. The
reason why we chose to have female characters in our
film was because our group only consisted of females.
However, we could have filmed male characters, but
decided not to as we tried to convey that there was
nothing wrong with women also starring in action
films.
10. The protagonist is portrayed through a mixture of
apprehension and dominance by the use of her body
language and facial expressions. The antagonist is also
represented as a dominant character, nonetheless, with
a hint of perplexity. Both characters are dominant in
their own ways. The protagonist is dominant through
the use of her super powers.
11. A tilt angle to represent
the authority of the
protagonist.
A pan movement
of the antagonist’s
figure to represent
her way of
dominance.
12. The antagonist is dominant by murdering the previous
protagonist in the past. We previously did intend to
have flashbacks of the previous protagonist. However,
we did not have enough time to produce the flashback
as we would need to choose additional locations- this
would also mean more editing. When the antagonist
had murdered the previous protagonist, this is how the
scar was passed onto the present protagonist.
13. What kind of institution might distribute your media
product?
I assume that Working Title Films will distribute our
media product, as it is a British film production
company. They produce feature films and several
television productions. Working Title has also
promoted many actors and actresses that were born in
England, such as Keira Knightley and Simon Pegg.
14. Our film is also British which is why we prefer to have
a British institution. This will keep the British
audience intrigued in our product because our
institution is highly known for their success.
15. Action films attract generally a male audience because
of the high use of violence and props that are used.
The reason we have chosen our genre to be action is
because they have remained successful for a long time.
Even though they are thought to be traditionally male,
modern action films have begun to appeal to a wider
audience with producers trying to attract not just
males.
16. For instance, Tomb Raider and The Hunger games
have both had major success because of the
protagonist in both films being female.
17. Who would be the audience for your media product and
why?
We agreed that our film would be addressed for
audiences who have not yet reached adulthood.
Furthermore, their interest in action would increase.
Our target audience is 12A as we agreed that action
films are usually addressed to young teenagers until
roughly the age of 25. However, because our film only
consists of female characters, it would probably appeal
to a younger audience because usually, younger female
actors star in action films.
18. How did you attract/address your audience?
We attracted our audience by using editing transitions
between each scene to make the scenes flow to create
continuity. The variety of camera angles also helped
keep the action at an established level.
This is at the end of our film opening where we faded
the scene into whiteness.
19. What have you learnt about technologies from the
process of constructing the product?
We used a camcorder to produce our video. I learnt how to
upload our video clips onto the computer and import the
footage into the required software. To create an effective
film opening, we used Premiere Pro to edit our video clips.
When we produced our final product, we also added non-
diegetic sound. We also used YouTube to gain inspiration
and evidence of what inspired us to produce our film
opening and our genre.
We created a blog where we stored our research and
planning. This was quite useful as we were able to hold
multiple platforms of different media. This meant that I
was able to store and locate different media products, all
onto the same place.
20. Looking back at your prelim task, what do you feel you
have learnt in the progression from it to the full
product?
For my Preliminary task, I learnt how to use the
camcorder effectively. We were unsure and
unorganized as this was our first time to produce and
direct a video. For our main task, I learnt how to use
different websites to produce different media and
upload them onto my blog. For instance, I used
http://bubble.us/ to produce a mind map of the
research I had collected of conventions of action
films. I also used http://animoto.com/ to present both
storyboards of the prelim and the main task into a
video format.
