The document provides an evaluation by Olivia Marr of a media studies project. It discusses how her film, poster, and review used and developed conventions of real media products in the social realism genre. It describes getting feedback from peers during the planning and production stages and how this helped shape her work. Finally, it includes a table evaluating how different software like iMovie, Serif Page Plus, and DaFont were used at different stages and how helpful they were.

1. A2 Media Studies Evaluation
Olivia Marr

2. In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?

3. After looking at the codes and conventions of real media products in my research and planning, I would say that my film definitely meets these forms and sticks
to its genre quite well whilst also incorporating elements of other genre’s into it.
In terms of the actual film, the codes and conventions that I discovered while researching were extremely helpful to me in the creation of my film:
- Always location shooting (never shot in studios)
- Scripts are half written, half improvised
- Combination of sub-genres, mostly a balance between humour and solemnity, with dramatic elements
- Widely known real social issues, explored through one individuals/a group of individuals' story/stories
- Non-professional actors.
The finding of these crucial conventions really aided my knowledge and helped me in every single part of creating my film. I would say it was especially helpful
in the development of my script, because it reassured me that in this case the script didn’t have to be really professional and accurate, but could be more
casual and improvised.
My overall genre is unquestionably Social Realism, but at the same time it integrates components of Teen-Drama and also Action films too. My poster is also a
fairly true expression of the conventions of existing posters too.
These are the conventions I discovered were vital in the production of Social Realism film posters:
- simplistic fonts and writing styles, using a combination of capitals and lower-case lettering
- the topic of the film is either made extremely clear or is left ambiguous; the images either reflect the main ideas of the film, or make it unclear to intrigue
possible audiences
- use of colours and styles reflect the film's nature... for example, the advertisement poster for This Is England uses the British flag's colour scheme (red, white,
and blue) to reflect the fact that the film takes on real social issues in Britain
- use of ratings and reviews by well-known, reliable sources using emotive and optimistic language to show the film in a positive light... for example, the poster
for Kidulthood (2006) features a quote "powerful, moving and unforgettable - kicks the door off its hinges".
As seen here on my film poster, the picture is very simple and leaves the topic ambiguous, and the colour scheme reflects the genre and gives the audience a
slight idea of what could be coming. The font is extremely simple, and I have also added a (fictional) rating from a reliable newspaper, The Guardian.
Again, my review is also true to real products because it is positive and also reflective and advertising of my film, which, as I discovered during the research
and planning of my review, is very important.

4. How effective is the combination of
your main product and ancillary texts?

5. I think that the combination of my film and ancillary texts is rather
effective and I feel that they will have the impact that I want them to
have on my target audience as well as other viewers and possible
audiences. Taking on board my feedback, I would say that my products
are entertaining, but not in a comical way, while also being educational,
and this was my aim from the beginning. All three of my products – my
film, my poster, and my review – stick well to their codes and
conventions, which means they can be easily distinguished as Social
Realism products. This also means that the combination of the three is
powerful, because when combined as a package it is easy to see that
they are all linked. The picture I used on my poster was taken the day
that I completed the majority of the filming for my film, so that it would
maintain factors such as the light and weather in my film.
I chose to combine my poster and review in the form of a fictional film
review website; I felt that if they were viewed together for the first time it
would be an accurate representation of a form that they would be seen
as in real life.

6. What have you learned from your
audience feedback?

7. My audience feedback has been extremely beneficial to the overall outcomes of
my main product and ancillary texts. Before I constructed or filmed any part of my
short film, I asked my peers about how they thought I should portray the topic of
drink driving. Reassuringly, my expectations were met and they all said that I
should go about the topic in a serious manner, and this absolutely benefitted my
film and allowed it to reflect the true codes of conventions of existing media
products. While creating my poster, I worked with some more peers and asked for
their advice about whether I should focus on a moving object or an actual face as
the main focus of the poster. I tried it both ways, but recognised that my peers
were right in saying that I should focus on an object rather than a face, and my
poster definitely looks better and is truer to conventions of Social Realism posters
this way.
I would say that I have also learned from my audience feedback that it is an
absolutely crucial factor in the completion of this kind of project. I know that if I had
not sought feedback at every stage in the completion of my coursework I would
have gone about it in the completely wrong way and this would have seriously
affected my outcomes in a very negative way. By getting the feedback that I did, I
was able to develop my storyline and overall products, as well as my planning, in
lots of depth and this without a doubt aided my project extremely positively.

8. How did you use media technologies in
the construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages?

9. Having a wide knowledge of different media technologies
is absolutely crucial if you want to succeed in the
production of coursework projects, and so I had to do a
large amount of research into different software and
programmes that would help me in the production of my
outcomes. On the next slide you will be able to see a
table of the software that I used, at what point of my
project that it was used, and my evaluation of how well it
helped me.
Altogether I think that the production of my outcomes was
really aided by the use of the variety of software and
programmes that I chose to use, and would definitely
recommend them to other students in the production of
their media products.

10. Software/
Programme
What did I use it for? In what ways was it helpful?
Mac iMovie The entirety of the editing of my short film This product was absolutely fantastic in the
editing of my film. The outstanding speed
editors, sound system and features and
different effects meant that creating, altering
and putting my film together was quick, easy
and actually really fun and interesting.
Serif Page Plus To create my poster, and then my fictional
web page for the poster and review.
Serif was really good at doing exactly what I
needed to do. It has templates and tools
such as a match tool, so that it is easy to
match up lines and pictures. This was the
most helpful tool in the creation of my web
page because it meant I could make it very
precise, leading it to look a lot more
professional that it would have without the
use of this tool.
DaFont.com The font for my poster. Using DaFont was really helpful because it
meant that I could broaden my use of fonts
and use something that looked really
professional, rather than just having to use
one from Serif or Microsoft Word, which
would not have suited my film or its genre.