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.

 

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

We have chosen to have our film distributed by Film4 as they have previously worked on very successful films such as “The Inbetweeners Movie” and “Slumdog Millionaire”. Film4 is a free digital television channel available in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and Switzerland, owned by Channel 4.

On its first day of release, “The Inbetweeners Movie” made over £2.5 million in 409 cinemas. set a new record for the most successful opening weekend ever achieved by a comedy film in the UK, overtaking “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason” and “The Hangover Part II” after earning £13,200,000. It stayed in the number 1 position in the UK film charts for 4 weeks. As of November 20, 2011, the film’s total box office gross is £45,028,695.

Channel 4 is the creator, owner and distributor of the program “Skins”, which is what we wanted to primarily base our media product on, therefore decided Film4 would be an appropriate choice. Film4 broadcasts many mainstream Hollywood movies to over 18 million households. By having a largely popular film company distribute films, then our product would therefore be potentially aired to millions and millions of people, gaining interest and consquently gaining profit.

Marketing is also important to our media product because this is how it will become well known. Word of mouth marketing will mean more people will talk about the film, and therefore spread the word and again, help gain profit. 

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

 

My media product represents a group of teenagers, mainly from the UK, aged around 16-19 years old. We are going to achieve this by using cultural signifiers such as hairstyles, clothes, make-up and dialogue along with including stereotypical events that occur in modern day teenage life.

The actors in the media product have been visually made to look between the ages of 16 and 19. The girls are wearing make up, some have fairly heavy make up on as it is taking place mainly at a house party. However, most of the extras faces are difficult to see as we wanted to keep them as unknown characters. This is because we don’t want to introduce too many people in the first 2 minutes, or the audience will get confused with who the main focus is. The main character is the only actor who gets their face shown fully at the party, so then hopefully the audience can make the link. The girls are also be wearing more ‘revealing’ clothes than usual as another indicator of the “house party” and the “crazy side of teens” aspect. The boys are wearing casual clothes, but appear as if they put more of an effort into looking nice than they usually would do. The main male character has the same look, because we didn’t want to show him as anything other than just a normal person at the party. He isn’t a boyfriend or anyone special, so by having him dress the same he is blending in. Portraying the actors in this way means it reaches out to the target audience, because it’s portraying teens in a true light, with a slight bit of exaggeration as only expected in media products such as this one.

As the opening sequence takes place at a party, and then a few weeks later aswell, we are dress the main character (Emily) in two different outfits. At the party, she blends in with the other girls by wearing similar amounts of make up and similar clothing. However, when she discovers she’s pregnant, it takes place as if it was a few weeks after the party. To make this clear, we have her with no make up on. We have decided to do this because she is in her own “home”, therefore we’re making this clear by showing she’s comfortable without make up. To emphasise this, we have her dressed in really casual clothes i.e. leisure clothes. She also has her hair all up in a bun to show she hasn’t made an effort. Also, this scruffy look mirrors her feelings as she feels down and confused, and like she can’t be bothered.

We have decided to not include dialogue in this opening sequence until the very end., where the main character discovers she’s pregnant and only says 2 words; “oh shit.” We’ve chosen to do this because we felt it would have more of an impact to not say much. Also, by using taboo language we are representing teenagers accurately as this is language commonly used in typical ‘rebellious’ teenage culture.

We use a drum and bass song to accompany our piece because we have found this music is popular with the group of people we are trying to represent. From talking to friends and peers, we realised that music is a massive part of a lot of teens lives, as it’s something they can relate to and enjoy. We then thought that it was important to make sure we use music that will appeal to our target audience, which is why we chose Chase and Status as they are a modern band, whose music career is rapidly growing in success, so they are perfect for our piece.

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

Our media product is an opening sequence that uses and develops forms and conventions of real media products. We had researched into opening sequences and learnt the conventions, for example characterisation, setting, genre and narrative. We have established characterisation by having the very first shot of only the main character. We then alternate the scenes between a party sequence where you can’t really define peoples faces, and then back to the close ups of the main character. By doing this, we are helping the viewer understand who the film is going to be based around. We also decided to keep the face of the ‘love’ interest as hidden as possible so the viewers would realise he perhaps isn’t going to be a massive part in the film.

close up (under the sheets)

close up (Juno)

We established the genre of ‘teen drama’ by taking a topic that is quite delicate, especially for teenagers, and portraying it as a dramatic thing. We create this ‘drama’ by having the main character swear at the end, which reflects her frustration and anger, although done in what some consider a comical way. The comdeic aspect wasn’t initally intended, and we wanted to be careful with how that came across to our audience. However, feedback was generally positive so we decided to keep that in, feeling quite confident it wouldn’t cause contraversy amongst the audience. Not just the fact it may be an issue due to dealing with such a sensitive issue, we didn’t want the audience to be confused as to what the genre of the product was. But as said before, most people completely understood and realised it was a dramatic piece.

under the sheets (genre/narrative)

Juno (genre/narrative)

The narrative is gradually made clearer throughout the opening sequence. For a start, the audience may not understand what is going on, as the pregnancy test isn’t show straight away. However, as the product develops this is made more obvious, and how it happens also shows. We did this to try and create a bit more mystery in the piece, to keep the audience interested. (another reason we didn’t show the male characters face.)  

Setting was slightly harder to show because we included 2 different places in the one opening sequence. So in this sense we challenged the typical idea of establishing setting. However, we think we did it quite effectively as we clearly showed the 2 separate places. By having the main character in clear focus, and moving her around the room in different clips, it becomes obvious that she is a bathroom. She is also wearing different clothes to what she was at the party, which is what defines the 2 separate occasions. However, in our audience feedback, we got told that this wasn’t made as clear as we originally thought. Hopefully this wouldn’t be the case all the time, as in our feedback Emily didn’t bring up the fact she was confused about it at all.

Overall, we thought the ways in which we had interpreted and used the typical forms and conventions of a real media product were effectively portrayed in our own media product. We wanted to make sure above everything that our product wasn’t confusing, and showed a clear picture of the story to follow it, and we feel this is what we have achieved. 

Thank you!

I’d like to say a massive thank you to everyone who helped us out with the production of this opening sequence. Everyone involved was such a big help and without them we wouldn’t have been able to create anything like what we have.

Especially thank you to Emily Thompson and Ryan Whomes for agreeing to be the main characters. Had they not have been as co-operative as they were, we would have had so many problems with filming!

And finally thank you to Charlotte Cavender and Heather Paxton who were my group for this work. Together I believe we’ve made a successful media product, and hope everyone else enjoys our work!

[Cast and crew- left to right] Emily Thompson, me (Emma Child), Ryan Whomes, Charlotte Cavender and Heather Paxton.

“Under The Sheets” – Finished Media Product

This is our final media product.

Audience Feedback

Thank you to Charlotte Cavender for recording and leading the interview.

Also thank you to Alice, George (media students) and Emily (non-media student) for providing us with their feedback.