Re Written Evaluation, Question Six

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

From the preliminary task I feel that I’ve learnt how to produce a piece of footage that has thought out shots which I have been able to put together in editing with a sense of continuity about it. I have also learnt that in order to portray a message to the viewer (narrative of a film) it is key to consider Mise en Scene and other conventional aspects for the genre. There are important choices that have to be made pre filming in order to reach your target audience successfully.

From when I did the preliminary task I feel that I have have been able to learn more about media studies in general. I have been able to explore more creative avenues which has opened up different ways I can present my work. By progressing in this way I will now be able to take the things that I have learnt from this project to help me in future projects.

Re Written Evaluation, Question Five

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

Filming

During the first stages of filming I felt that I leant the most. This is because we were able to test out what worked and what didn’t. It showed us what shots worked well because of how they were framed and what needed to be improved on. We were also able to learn more about the Pentax DSLR cameras that we were using. We found that they weren’t always as reliable as we thought, we had to make sure that we had full battery before we went out to film. This is something that I didn’t really think of before but now I know that I should always make sure before going filming. I have learnt that you have to think ahead when it comes to technology and be prepared.

Editing

During this project we used Premier Pro on the editing machines. Before doing this project I had some experience with using it but by editing more in this project I found myself to be quicker at using it and understanding the functions more. I was also able to use After Effects. As a group we helped create the moving star background at the beginning of the footage. This was something I had never used before and I was able to learn a lot about. I found that you could use this program for the different affects on fonts, backgrounds etc. in order to help improve the quality of the finished product. I also learnt how to export different clips which meant that I could add multiple clips of our work to my blog.

Using Digital Technology

Before this project I had never used blogger before, by using blogger in this project I managed to not only learn about how to use it but the features that can go with it. In presenting my work in this way I felt that it was a more creative. I was also able to use features like voki, which helped me develop my ideas around target audience. I was also able to add things to my blog like power points via slide share; I could upload videos from YouTube and from the editing machine. This helped me develop my skills in using technology and it meant that it had a positive affect on the work I produced. From using blogger I now know how to use it correctly and I am learning about other features that I can match with it. This learning process has not only helped the overall outcome of my project but will help me in the future if I want to continue to learn other things within digital technology.

Below are some examples of what technology we used.

Re Written Evaluation, Question Four

Who would be the audience of your media product?

Also how did you attract/address your audience?

Our target audience is base don girls that would watch chick flicks and would still be in school. They were based on people like us/ our friends. 

This is Hannah, she is in year 11. When she finishes school she hopes to get into beauty college and one day have her own beauty salon.

Hannah said that she 'could relate to posh totty and chav' the reason why was 'because I like their dress sense and they seem like the kind of girls I would be friends with'.

When asked if Hannah would have been able to continue to watch the rest of the film her answer was 'yes'.  She said 'I enjoy watching chick flicks especially when they are about girls my age and are in school'.

Re Written Evaluation, Question Four

Who would be the audience of your media product?

Also how did you attract/address your audience?

When looking at the genre, chick flick we knew that this style of film usually relates to females. We also knew that if we were going to be filming 4 female characters in a school it would be aimed at a younger audience; preferably our viewers would be in school themselves. From these ideas we then went on to find out if this was true. Would girls aged 12-18 be interested in a chick flick. So we conducted a questionnaire, we asked as many people as we could to fill it out. After looking at the results we knew what age and gender our target audience was so we certified it age 12. This was so that some of our younger viewers as well as older viewers would be able to watch the film.

One thing we didn’t know was what our viewers be able to relate to, what do they like? We needed to make sure that we had a more personal understanding of exactly who our viewers were. I decided to create a voki. In doing this I was able to think about what my viewer would look like and what kinds of things she would be interested in. By creating a name for her and the things around her I was able to make it more personal and create a visual idea of who would watch our film. In doing this it meant that whenever we would make decisions about the film I would relate it to the voki as if they were a person and think, would she like this?

The ways in which we addressed our target audience was by having distinct stereotypical characters from 4 different social groups you might find around a school. This meant that we were be to attract different kinds of audiences but the majority being young girls. We also made sure that each character fitted the conventions of their social group. This would make it easy for the viewer to recognize the different characters straight away. We wanted to make the characters likeable so we decided to show friendship between the 4 very different girls as the common denominator. This is one thing that we knew our audience would respond well to. A theme of friendship was found in most of the chick flicks we researched: ‘Mean Girl’, ‘Wild Child’ and ‘St. Trinians’. By recognizing this as a common ground for what we see in other chick flick films we knew that combining the 4 characters as friends would be successful and that our target audience would respond well to this.

The final way of making sure we were targeting the right audience was to get girls from different ages between our target audience to watch our film opening. We asked them questions concerning the film like ‘were the characters easy to relate to’ and the replies where positive. We also asked them, ‘who was your favourite character’ and we had one reply, ‘all of them’. This reassured us that we were addressing our target audience in the right way.

Below is a video of the feedback and reactions we got from to people within our target audience.

Re Written Evaluation, Question Three

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

A leading independent distribution company that releases films to the UK and the Republic of Ireland is, the Entertainment Film Distributors. Founded in 1978 they have distributed films like ‘Sex and the City’ and ‘St. Trinians’. Films of which they have released have won, 38 Oscars and 22 BAFTA’. I think that originally when looking into what company would do the best job of distributing our film I would have looked at this company, however after looking at other companies, I believe the best company to go with would be Universal.

Companies like Paramount or Warner Brothers are the dominating companies of the media industry. This is because they are American, big budget business that can afford to distribute the films they feel fit with their brand. These are usually slightly sanitized films because they are distributing to the world and want to appeal to wide ranges of people. They want to protect their brand image and in doing so you hardly find them making for instance, social realist films. Although our film doesn’t fit into that genre it is British and it isn't completely sanitized in that way.

Other smaller independent companies like Coffee Films wouldn’t fit our film because we would need the budget in order to reach all of our target audience and with a genre like chick flick it is sometimes harder to do it on a small budget. This is especially when it would mainly be filmed in a school were there would have to be a lot of actors/actresses.

Therefore I wanted to look at a distribution company that not only have the budget but and influences from the UK. The perfect distribution company for us would be Universal. This is because Universal have decided to join with a British film company called Working Title. By combining the two and creating this synergy it means that they are able to get a mix of influences when distributing films. They have produced box office hits like: ‘Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason’, ‘Bridesmaid’ and ‘Snow White & the Huntsman’.

Re Written Evaluation, Question Two

"How does your media product present particular social groups?"

Textual Analysis

‘How is gender represented in our 2 minute opening to a film?’

Gender is represented differently with each of the four main characters. They follow the conventions of the stereotypical social groups they represent.

The first shot of the film opening is an over the shoulder shot of a girl looking through a book of pictures of what seems to be young friends together. By using this kind of shot as the audience you feel as if you are looking into someone else’s story. It continues this theme because we cut into a shot of the first character.

The first character we meet in a mid shot of her smoking outside a school sets the scene for what the audience could expect. This shows rebelling and therefore a modern representation of women. She is wearing all black, she has her hair tied back and has dark makeup on. This makes her look quite masculine unlike some of the alter characters that we see.

The second character that we are introduced to geek sheek, we can see that although she is unlike the goth represented more traditionally. She seems to be more feminine; this is because she is wearing more revealing clothing. By showing her legs and therefore appealing to the male gaze this is a traditional representation on women.

We see the same traditional representation of women being even stronger with the next character, posh totty. This is because after seeing a mid shot of her with two boys it then cuts to a close up two shots of her legs whilst she is crossing the road. She is also wearing a shirt which is open and heels this is a traditional representation of women.

The last main character that we are introduced is the chav. Although she has got her legs showing like some of the other characters in the opening, she is wearing shorts and trainers. This is quite modern, it also matches the low angle of her throwing a hat at a boys face. This shows her confidence and some of her cheeky character. Overall this is a modern representation of women.

When looking the characters and how they represent gender there is a variety of both modern and traditional ways they do this. This has been done because we tried to appeal to a modern audience whilst using traditional and modern representations in order for them to understand the different personalities and social groups that the girls represent.

Re Written Evaluation, Question Two

How does your media product present particular social groups?

During the development of the film opening we wanted to make sure that we had clear characters that would fit the conventions of a chick flick. We also wanted the individual characters to be relatable to our audiences. Because of the different styles we all had within the group it meant that we were able to develop our characters. We decided to go down a stereotypical route because we knew that it would fit the traditional conventions of a chick flick.

During this process we researched into different chick flicks, however one stood out to us, and that was St. Trinians. This is because they represented different social groups traditionally. They stuck to the conventions that would apply to each character and was successful in portraying the individual groups. When watching the trailer I found myself categorizing who I am and trying to think which social group I would be in. I knew that this was a successful way of presenting different social groups because it meant that I was relating to the characters. I wanted to have the same affect on our audience, therefore we decided to represent four different social groups in the same traditional way.

When we had to choose what social groups to represent, this was easy for us to decide because we are all female students and we know the kinds of stereotypical social groups you find in school. We matched each person to a social group and developed it from there. We decided on names, personalities and what they might like. By developing each character in this way it meant that we had a good understanding of how to represent each social group and the conventions around each one.

Below are some of the clips which gave us the inspiration to represent different social groups in the way that we did.

Re Written Evaluation, Question One

This is a continuation of question one showcasing how we developed our music video through using the traditional conventions found within our genre, chick flick.

Re Written Evaluation, Question One

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

Before creating my AS 2 minute opening to a film I researched into different genres of film and looked closely at the conventions they follow. By researching into different genres and their target audience it meant that I was able to see the importance of portraying a clear genre to the viewer. By having a clear genre it makes it easier for the audience to follow/understand what’s happening.

Most of the researched 2 minute openings I watched showed clearly portrayal what genre they where. This is so that they can get their target viewers attention right from the start. By understanding straight away what genre the film is it means that the audience can expect to see certain things that are fitting with the genre. This also helps them to understand the narrative early on because of the type of genre it is and what you can expect form it. Because of the short amount of time we had, I thought it would be best to stick to the traditional conventions of the genre we decided to us so that the film was clear to the our target audience. By doing this we can also ensure that we capture the attention of our target viewers.

In my AS film opening because of the group of four girls we where in we thought it would be best to go down the chick flick route. We researched the conventions in ‘Mean Girls’, ‘Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging’ and ‘Wild Child’. When researching into the genre we found that we had the right tools to be able to present this genre well. We were in a school and we all had different styles, which gave us the inspiration to have separate characters that would appeal to our audience. We wanted to create distinct stereotypical characters so that it wouldn’t take the viewer long to recognize what was happening. By creating characters in a traditional representation it means that the audience where able to match this with the genre and narrative in order to understand what has happening in the short space of time we had.

After looking at different genre’s of film and the conventions they had we decided to look into more detail at chick flick films and the conventions they carried. We all made separate textual analysis studies on the trailer for ‘St. Trinian’s’. This way we brought all the ideas that we had from doing so and brought them together to help us apply those conventions to our film. This helped us get an idea of what were the traditional conventions of a chick flick. By looking at the Mise en Scene in detail it meant that we where able to take care of the details when filming and we knew what the correct thing was to do in order to fit to the chick flick traditional convention.

In the slide below there are some examples of the work we completed by taking into consideration conventions and where the inspiration came from.