7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

Throughout the process of this production, I have learnt about new technologies and have developed the knowledge I already I had. The main technologies I have learnt about are; the use of cameras and filming, search engines, Final Cut Pro and the Apple Macs.

Final Cut Pro and The Macs

[Referring to the picture]

The blue section is where the clips that have been imported are stored. Here they can be viewed and then dragged into the actual production.

The yellow section is the timeline, and this is where the clips are edited together. After dragging them from the blue section, they can be cut and have effects added to them in this area.

The red section is where the time of the media product being edited is displayed. This helps us when we’re editing to keep track of how much more footage we need and how far away from finishing we are.

Finally, the green section is where the media product is shown. This is helpful because as you’re editing the piece together, you can easily watch the material you have so far and can see where improvements can be made. Also, it meant we could show peers the work as we were making it and asking them for constructive criticism.

Also, throughout editing we discovered shortcuts and easier ways to edit. For example, by pressing the ‘B’ key it instantly turns on ‘Blade’ which is how you cut clips on this software, and then by pressing the ‘A’ key it goes back to the normal cursor. This simple shortcut made the editing process so much simpler and easier.

After editing the clips together, we also looked at the effects Final Cut Pro had to offer. These are a lot more professional and sophisticated than those on other editing software avaliable. By playing around with these effects I learnt a lot about what looks good and professional with the rest of the product. I also learnt how to create a sophisticated looking media product.

The Macs themselves are very different to normal PC’s which I use normally. However, they were very easy to get used to, and within a few tries using it, everyone in the group was able to successfully use the macs with no problems. The only issues we had with them was saving work onto them, because finding the files on the macs is more complex than finding files on a normal computer. But after a few attempts I managed to work it out. 

Sony NEX 5

We filmed the media product using a Sony NEX 5, which we were very luck to have avaliable to us as it was Heathers. This camera offers sleek and high quality pictures and film, which overall helped with the quality of the opening sequence. 

We found and used lots of different features which helped us in production. For example the camera is automatically set to ‘automatic zoom’, however after playing around with the camera during test shots, I found the manual zoom setting. This made filming a lot easier and better quality because it allowed us to change the focus how we wanted, rather than replying on the actual technology to do it. 

Due to the camera already belonging to Heather, we were quite advanced in the knowledge of the camera and it’s settings and features as she could easily tell us anything we needed to know. 

Search Engines

When researching the genre, I used ‘Google’ because this is a search engine I was familiar with. Before filming, I was never any good at being able to successfully find things I need on the internet. It is a quick, simple and effective way of finding what I needed for research and helped out a lot in this reguard. 

Also, YouTube played a big part in the creation of this media product. I used it to watch lots of opening sequences, which I then analysed and took into consideration when making my opening sequence. It is also where we uploaded our final product for anyone with access to internet can see it [posted previously].

Overall, my knowledge of technologies has expanded greatly by having first hand experience of the software used. By using more advanced and complex technologies such as the macs a

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Our target audience is both males and females aged around 16 – 19 years old. We are attracting this audience by using and developing typical conventions of a ‘teen drama’

films, and also including typical events of a modern teenage life.

We based our media product around the topic of a house party, which makes it more appealing to our target audience. Within this party, comes more stereotypes such as drinking, sexual relationships and just socialising. The characters at this party are also aged between 16-19, and the main character, Emily is 17 herself, so our audience, especially the females, would find it easier to empathise with her.

After watching a few teen drama/coming of age films our we noticed a theme of typical events that occur in the films. These being things such as parties, teen pregnancies, school dances/proms, drugs and drinking and sexuality.

After talking to people who have watched our product and given us feedback, the majority successfully identified the genre as being a teen drama. Those who didn’t still recogonised the dramatic aspect, but thought of it as a comedy due to the, as some have pointed out as, comedic ending to the opening sequence. 

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our media product would be aimed at older teengers, both female and male, aged from 17-19 as this is the age of the characters in it. Although it is aimed at both boys and girls, the female audience would probably be more sympathetic because they would be able to empathise

with Emily, and this would be harder for boys to relate to as we keep the identity of the father hidden. It is a topic more sensitive towards females, therefore we would primarily make them our target audience.

The media product would be an age 15 rating as it includes the subject of drinking and mild sex scenes which would be inappropriate for  younger, more immature viewers. Although the topics included are quite strong, they are shown in a sensitive and subtle way so if a viewer at the age of 15 wanted to see it then it would be appropriate. We didn’t want to have it as an 18 as this would reduce the amount of viewers and consumers greatly, even though our main target audience is females and males between the ages of 17 and 19.