Evaluation

1.In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? My film is a romantic drama. Three major films influenced my film opening. ‘Love Actually’ was the first film that inspired me. This was due to Huw Grant’s voice over in the opening sequence. However ‘Love Actually’ is a romantic comedy whereas I decided to go for a more serious approach in my film. The second film that inspired me was ‘He’s just not that into you’ (romantic comedy drama). Again it was the voice over that caught my attention, however this was a female saying the voice over which meant it was closer to something I would do. The third film was ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ which is a romantic comedy drama. I think the storyline to this film is the most similar to mine. It has shots of women getting ready in the opening sequence as I have Rachel doing her make-up in mine. The first few shots of my film are establishing shots. You get this at the start of many films, including romantic dramas. Additionally the non-diegetic sound is a contemporary pop song which is relevant to a romantic comedy. The high angle shot of the Vogue magazines also suggest to the audience that it is going to be about fashion, along with the voice over. 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? My film opening shows that Rachel is upper class. This is due to the vogue magazines and the suggestion that she shops in high end stores such as prada. 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? My film would be produced by a large British production company and be shown in the cinema. As all the actors would be British I thought it would be apt to have a British Production company. Also I believe this is they type of film you would see in the cinema especially as it relates to the films I have mentioned in question one which were all also in the cinema. 4. Who would be the audience for your media product? My target audience for my film is for females 15+. This is due to the majority of it being about fashion and therefore is more likely to be appealing to females. Additionally there would be strong language and scenes of a sexual nature throughout the film so it would need to be age 15. 5. How did you attract / address your audience? The voice over would attract the audience as people may agree and be able to relate to what it is saying. Additionally if they read Vogue they are going to be attracted as most people that are interested in fashion are. 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? When editing this film I used Adobe Premiere Pro. I learnt how to use a variety of different editing techniques. I learnt how to import music and voice over and then adjust the sound so you can hear both of them clearly at the same time. I also learnt how to insert titles to my film and have them appearing using different effects and angles, such as cross dissolve. I had to make a lot of cuts throughout my editing due to the time limit and some of the shots have jolts in that needed to be cut out. I had to make sure the cuts were smooth, and the camera was at the same angle if I was getting rid of sections from the middle of a shot. Also I had to make sure there were not any continuity errors such as a shot with Rachel with lipstick cutting to a shot without. Finally ordering the shots was something I learnt. The shots don’t necessarily have to be in the order you filmed them. By adding a different kind of shot in the middle of some similar shots it makes it more visually intersteing. 7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? The preliminary was a huge help in make my opening sequence as prior to that I had not made a proper sequence. I learnt about how different angles can make it visual interesting however you don’t need to keep cutting to different angles as it may be too much. In my preliminary task, some parts were not as believable as I would have liked them to be this was due to me not being as assertive with my actors as I should be. When filming my opening sequence I was precise with what I wanted my actress to do in order to get the desired shot. I did learn about adding titles when doing my preliminary however it was only one at the start. I used a black screen with red text, thinking back it may have looked a bit tacky and therefore when doing my titles for my opening sequence I went for a more basic approach and also had them over the top of my film.