Evaluation

Group 8Natalie, Liz & Hannah

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

We used and developed conventions of real media products through our opening sequence by

introducing the main characters of our film...

Young Isobel

Older Isobel

Young Rebecca – Confessions

Older Rebecca - Confessions

These main characters are, firstly, Isobel Hart; this is the heroin of our film who aspires to be a successful writer. The storyline of our film is based upon

this dream. We have this character as both a child and an adult to explore the progression of a childhood dream. This idea was inspired by the film

‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’...

The second main character is James, the ‘love interest’. Through parallel music and camera angles we evoke his

romantic status. Should the film be made feature length, it would consist of complicated events that would surround these

two characters.

The character of James was inspired by the actor Michael Cera, particularly from his role in ‘Juno’. He is intended to be a non-

stereotypical male figure for whom pity and affection is felt by the audience.

This is a clip that inspired our opening sequence:YouTube - Confessions of a Shopaholic - Part 1

Still images from the clip:

Our media product challenges the conventions of a real media product as we use a montage to begin our sequence and this is not a generic convention of film. However, we drew influence

from the film ‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’ which uses a similar technique and has the same genre and target audience as our

film.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our opening sequence represents a feminine, young, ‘Chic-flick’ styled genre in the following

ways...

The Mise En Scene uses bright colours to evoke a ‘girly’, upbeat approach , introducing the genre of the film aptly. In the opening

montage we use lots of colourful children’s books , setting the initial themes and creating an appropriate atmosphere.

Still images from our opening sequence:

We wanted our main character, Isobel, to look subtlety formal, to convey the idea

that she works in an office environment. However, due to the genre of the film we

believed it was important to add a little colour to her outfit, in keeping with the bright colours of the

montage and to represent our target

social group.

This is a still image from our opening

sequence of Isobel:

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

In our research for our opening sequence we drew inspiration from the film ‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’. This film was produced by the

production companies ‘Touchstone Pictures’ and ‘Jerry Bruckheimer Films’. After researching this film

and others like it, we derived that the following companies would be likely to distribute our film:

•Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

•Audio Visual Enterprises

•Buena Vista International

•Touchstone Home Video

•Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment

We believe that these companies would be likely to distribute our film as the general target audience that these companies seem to aim their films at is very similar to ours.

Through horizontal integration of these companies, which are all oligopolies, it would be possible to distribute our media product in a variety of different ways, such as:

• Magazine Advertisements

•Radio Advertisements

•TV Advertisements

•Memorabilia

•Film Trailers

Examples of Disney Memorabilia:

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Audience

Females

TeenagersPre-teens

Book Lovers

Aspiring Youngsters

How did you attract/address your audience?

In order to pick up on our audiences preferences about our opening sequence we asked a random selection of both genders, all teenagers to understand the success of our film and also help us to improve our final product. Here are 3 people’s personal comments:

•Chloe McDonald – “Oh I’m intrigued...what happens next!?”

•Rob Owen – “Yeah it worked well, my sister would love that. Definitely a girls film! The only thing I noticed was that the voice over is a bit too loud”

•Cath Schofield – “I really enjoyed it, the storyline was easy to follow. My only suggestion is to use more shots for the montage because I liked that part.”

To attract our target audience we used a number of specific things, including:

• A young, attractive, female leading actor who would appeal and relate to the audience.

•Upbeat, modern music, parallel with the genre of the film.

•An aspirational storyline to which the audience could relate.

•An intriguing cliff-hanger that would encourage people to watch.

Our leading actress:

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

product?We have developed our camera skills, using various different

angles and types of shots. For example, during the scene between Isobel and James we used a low angle shot, with the

camera on level with Isobel, to portray the idea that the audience should be seeing from Isobel’s perspective.

For the editing process we used the computer programme ‘Adobe Premier Pro’ to edit our opening sequence. A new

concept that we encountered was when we had to adjust the audio levels throughout to maintain a consistent volume. We

used specific shot transformations such as dissolves to represent the passing of time.

We also used ‘Paint Shop Pro’ to create the title for our opening sequence. This took a great deal of time and a lot of hard work, but we persevered and were very pleased with

the end result.

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

•We advanced in our use of camera angles and generally improved with our camera skills.

•We were more cautious of the lighting during the filming and editing process of our opening sequence

•We focused on the professionalism of our continuity throughout, ensuring that the Mise En Scene was consistent.

•We have come a long way with our editing skillsand use of editing programmes.