Evaluation of the

Foundation Production

By Nikita More

In what ways does your Media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Convention of media

products

Use, Develop,

Challenge

How your media product does that? Evidence

Narrative Device Develop I have used linear narrative as all the events in my story occurs chronologically. It starts where everything is

fine and is going on very smoothly. Start of the day, the main protagonist going inside the shop. In the

middle, the main events occur. This is when the main protagonist meets the love of her life and falls in love at

the first sight. At the end, they become friends. All these events have occurred chronologically so the

audience can understand the story very easily.

Introducing characters Use I introduced the main protagonist of my film, Anca. However, you do not get to see her face, you can only

hear her voice and see her from behind. This builds up the focus as the audience want to see who the main

protagonist. We then see the shopkeeper. Her friendly behaviour towards Anca tells the audience that she is

not a bad character. It also shows their relationship within the community. Near the end, we meet the hero of

the film. Keeping him till the end creates anticipation in the audience to know who the love of her life is.

Introducing Setting/Time Develop My first shot begins with the camera going upwards in the sky and shows the sunrise. It conveys to the

audience that it is shot in morning time. I felt that showing the sunrise is a good way to start my movie. For

the setting, I have used the borough of Barnet. I know this area very well therefore filming here is more easy.

I have used the charity shop of Oxfam as my main setting in the film. I always go in the shop and know the

people very well so they allowed me to use their shop for my film. The shop makes my film look very realistic.

Creating the mood Develop The sunrise shot creates a very warm and happy mood which suits the romantic genre of my film. The

atmosphere inside the shop is very relaxed which again suits the romantic genre.

Titles Develop The titles appear in red. I have chosen the colour red as it’s a colour symbolising love a passion to go with

my romantic genre. The name of my film appears big n bold compared to the rest of the titles. This helps the

audience see the title clearly and they get to know what they are watching. I have used normal ariel font so

the audience can read my titles easily.

Music Use For the beginning shot of sunrise, I have used soft and slow music which matches with the shot and my

romantic genre. I have used some diagetic sound, when the main protagonist is entering the shop. Diagetic

sound makes the shot look much more realistic. In the diagetic sound, we can hear the windy weather,

people walking and normal conversations. The audience can relate to such sounds as these are everyday

sounds.

How does your media product represent particular social group?

In my film, the main protagonists are middle-aged people. The working girl is 29 years old and the boy is over

30.I also have an aged woman as the shopkeeper in my film as mostly aged people are the ones who work at

charity shops. I have chosen this age-group because I wanted to focus on a different age-group other than

teenagers. I have chosen a white girl and a mixed raced boy. This makes my film look more realistic because

nowadays all ethnicities are equal and people now are not too racist. The boy is a manager at a restaurant

therefore he is dressed up in a simple long coat and comes across as little strict. The girl is working at a

newspaper industry thus she is always interested in books and reading.

Few of the shots are put in deliberately so the audience can see clearly what is being portrayed. I have used a

long shot when the girl and boy first meet. This shot shows bot of them and the audience can see that they both

belong to different ethnicities and come from different background but still love makes its way to unite lovers.

The main message is about love and people connecting despite having different background and nationality. In

this shot, the music gets slower and we can hear their dialogues more. This makes the audience focus more on

what they are saying and also this gives more importance to the characters.

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

History – Cinepix Films Properties (CFP) was founded in 1962 by John Dunning and Andre Link. CFP was a

leading Canadian independent motion picture company releasing both English and French language films and

making 10-12 budgeted titles annually. Cinepix Films Properties was renamed to Lions Gate Films on 12th

January, 1998. Its first major box office success was American Psycho in 2000, which began a trend of

producing and distributing films too controversial for the major American studios. On 17th October, 2005, Lions

Gate Entertainment acquired Redbus Film Distribution for $35 million and became Lionsgate UK on 23rd

February, 2006.

Lionsgate Films (formerly known as Cinepix Film Properties) is a Canadian – American. It is largest and most

successful mini-major film studio in North America. It focuses mainly on foreign and independent films and has

distributed various of film series such as The twilight Saga(partially), The Hunger Games and, The

Expendables.

Their list of existing work is what persuaded me to choose that company as my distributor. They usually choose

films that are independent that would appeal to specific audiences. Also, their varieties of series for Twilight and

The Hunger Games look very unique and all have been very successful. Recently, lionsgate released The

Hunger Games: Catching fire on 22nd November, 2013 which grossed $158 million at the US box office. The

next film in the Hunger Games franchise is, Mockingjay: Part 1 which is scheduled to be released this year in

2014.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

During my planning process, I had to think of my target audience. I was going to chose younger demographic

(teenagers) but then I thought to do something challenging and focus on different group. I then decided to use

middle-aged people as my target audience but that was not enough. I had to had something more to it. Then I

decided to have an aged woman in my film, this would help my film look more entertaining and little humorous as

old people sometimes say or do funny things which others find amusing. But my main focus was on middle-aged

people. I didn’t know much about them, so I decided to interview one of work collogue who is middle-aged.

What are your hobbies and interests?

My hobbies are reading fiction books and

newspapers. I have lots of interests such

as playing tennis and outdoor games, I

love going out for dinner with my family

and I also love getting into relationships.

That’s always fun.

What genre of music do you prefer?

I prefer listening to Jazz and Opera, its

always very smooth and relaxing to

listen to. I also enjoy electronic rock and

contemporary music as its classy and

just nice to hear than loud and fast

music.

What are your favorite films?

I loved Memento and Inception, those

were very nicely written and presented

in a very subtle way. I also liked

hangover, that one was very funny and

got a lot of laughter out of me. My most

favorite ones are The Notebook and

P.S. I love You. These both are very well

written and very emotional stories, it

made me cry but I love to watch

romantic films.

What are your plans for the future?

Well I am really enjoying my job at the

moment as a chef. My plan is to get

promotion and get a higher position.

Look after my family. Get into a

relationship soon and have kids and

enjoy my family time with everyone.

How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract my target audience, I choose romantic genre as that’s the age where people fall in love or want to

meet their soul mate, similarly my protagonist is also in search of her soul mate. So I thought that this idea will

grab my target audiences attention and they will be interested to come and watch my film.

To address my audience, I have used certain props and accessories for my audience to feel connected to the

protagonists. For The main protagonist, I have shown her in usual clothing with a handbag and an overcoat.

This shows her as a everyday girl and many of the female middle-aged audiences any feel related to the way

she is dressed and the way she carries herself in the film. The boy is shown wearing a long overcoat, short hair

and comes across as being very simple. Similarly, many of the male demography will also relate to his way of

dressing and some may also relate of his sincere personality. The shopkeeper is shown as simple and is

dressed as a normal aged-woman would dress. Her grey hair and certain accessories she is wearing, for

example, a watch and a necklace, shows her age and also shows that old people also like to dress up and wear

matching accessories. The slow and romantic music inside the shop matches with the genre and also

reinforces a romantic feeling within the audiences as this reminds them of the genre. The setting of the shop is

quite which also tells the audience that it’s a charity shop and mostly middle-aged people and older people go

in there and not younger people.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of

constructing this product?

When creating this film, I have familiarised myself with Final Cut Express, an editing program for Macs. I discovered

many new things when learning how to use it. I learnt how to change the speed, duration, altering colours and sound

levels, I had to get grips with all these. At first it was difficult but then I got used to it.

I also used audio networks for my sound, a website with a range of music pieces and types of sounds. This didn’t require

a lot of knowledge about the website but I just wanted to create a piece of music that would set up the right mood for my

film. I picked a soft music piece to suit my romantic genre and it also matched with the sunrise shot in my film.

During the production stage, I used a canon camera, this was an equipment which I didnt use before so I learnt during

filming how to operate it.

Canvas

Timeline

ViewerFinal Cut

Express

Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do

you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

During the production, I have learnt about different aspects which go into it such as mise-en-

scene, character representation, effects of shots when creating an opening scene. This is

mainly to introduce the protagonist and the antagonist and to set the scene in place. Also to tell

the type of film it is e.g genre, independent or mainstream cinema etc.

For example, with this project, I discovered the importance of making the audience entertained

so they continue to watch your film. During the continuity exercise, I had learnt how to use Final

Cut Express which was very useful when doing my film production. We had lots of mid-shots in

the continuity editing which made it more easier for me and made me understand clearly of how

to take such shots and also how to look after my equipment during the filming. Before the

continuity editing task, I had done another task where I had to make a scene exactly the same

from Life of Mars. For my film, I used my knowledge which I had gained when doing the Life On

mars exercise, I used the sunrise shot which is very similar from a sun shining shot from Life

On Mars.

Overall, I have learnt that an opening sequence requires a lot more than just titles. During the

opening sequence, the audience needs to be interested in either the characters or the storyline.

. All these tasks and exercises which I had done before my filming helped me a lot during my

production as it made my work much more easy and doable.