1) In what way does my media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Here is a film of me discussing the; Titles, Mise-en-scene, sound, camera types and editing in the opening scene of 'Dirty Little Secret' - and how I feel this resembles conventions of real media products:
Please note that tweaks were made the to final video following the making of this video, so not all of it is in context.
2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?
If you see this picture in large I discuss how my film represent the social group of teenagers:
3) What kind of media distribution might distribute my media product and why?
A media institution is a company which distributes a media product into the public for viewing. Media product's are likely to be distributed to cinemas and then eventually into merchandise such as home DVDs - this can either be on a local, national or even international scale. Having made the opening scene to my film 'Dirty Little Secret' I might take this to an institution along with the plot and see if they would fund the product.
I have conducted some research into media institution in order to decide which might distribute my product. I have found that my product would be unlikely to be published by a film company in Hollywood. This is due to the fact usually these films have huge budgets and are international blockbusters. I feel my product would have a small cost of production and would be successful in England, but perhaps shouldn't be rushed straight to Hollywood.
So, after finding that I wouldn't necessarily go to a major film company in Hollywood, I started to look at smaller British film institutions such as:
- BBC Films
- UK Film Council
- Film Four
- Vertigo Films
My favorite film company and the one I feel most suitable for my film was BBC. This is because they are at the forefront of producing modern teenage dramas for small directors. They like to find new talent so this would be good for me having never produced a movie before. Apparently they are picky on what they publish, however I feel the movie idea of 'Dirty Little Secret' is good enough. The fact the film is set in Britain would be good for a British based institution such as BBC Films.
4) Who would be the audience for my media product?
Before making my media product I decided that the target audience for my product would be teenagers of either gender. Now after making the opening scene I have conducted some extra target audience research to make sure of the audience for my film. Here is evidence of me undertaking this piece of research, just simply doing a web search for information via Google:
In the original bit of TAR I undertook with mostly teenagers, I found the following information about their favourite genres:
This was a crucial bit of research in me deciding to aim a romantic genre film at this target audience, as you can see from the table above they like films with romance in. To consolidate this, this is what I found with my most recent genre TAR:
The graph above displays the market share and ticket sales from the genre Romance/Romantic Comedy. It proves that romance still holds a great share of the film market in 2011, although ticket sales are low. However, this isn't to worrying as this is probably due to factors such as; 2011 is only a third of the way though and new technologies allow for downloads. If you look back to about 1999 in the graph above, you can see this genre was booming. This is good news as this is when my target audience will have been growing up, so they will have a large influence from romantic genre films. So overall, the audience for my final media product is definitely teenagers of either gender.
Where and how will my target audience access my film?
As explained in the question before, my product would be suitable for local cinemas. This would be good for my target audience as they really enjoy going to the cinema for a social activity.
5) How does my opening scene attract/address my audience?
Below is a picture of how my target audience has responded to the opening scene of my film. I asked them to watch the opening scene and took a picture of them, before they gave a response of how they felt about it.
I think my product identifies with all these people because they are teenagers just like the people in the opening scene, that is why the feedback is so positive. One person in the picture above is older but even they liked it! Another way I have addressed this audience in my opening scene is this POV (point of view) shot near the beginning of the scene:
This can be a good technique to immerse the viewer as they feel that they are there.
6) What have I learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Below is a presentation I created answering this question. You might want to use the arrows to view it at your own pace. Also, if you click 'menu' in the bottom left then 'view in fullscreen' you can see it larger so the text is clearer.
7) Looking back at my preliminary task, what do I feel I have learnt from the progression from it to the full product?
The preliminary task was all about focusing on the techniques I had previously researched, which were: Match on action, Shot/Reverse shot and 180° rule. I feel it is hard to show how my use of 180° rule, shot/reverse shot and match on action has progressed since my preliminary task. There were no errors in the preliminary task in that department and if you see my final product I just had keep this up which I feel I did.
However, here is a demonstration of how match on action slightly advanced into my final product:
So above you see the transition of the use of match on action in my preliminary task through to my final video. Both are shots of someone walking through a door. You can see both times the rule has been stuck to, however it has advanced. This is because the shot for the final shot was a lot more ambitious than the simple one in the preliminary task.
In terms of other ways I have developed since my preliminary task, I feel that my general filming is better. In my final product I demonstrated skills such as pans and zooms, which were not tried in the preliminary task. Also, I filmed some shots without a tripod for the first time. When I filmed the boy's memories in the final product I wanted to give a natural effect like the viewer was there, so I held the camera with some movement. Another extra shot I hadn't tried before was the POV (point of view) shot from the boy's POV looking at his iPod:
In conclusion, I think that since my preliminary task the main thing I have learnt is a broader range of filming techniques. In my final product I clearly tried trickier stuff than in the preliminary, as I learnt how to use the technology better and could perform better shots.
