Main Task Evaluation

By Mary Juyan

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

• Our media film was based on a Sci - Fi genre, from our research we have found that Sci – Fi is a futuristic film based in the future. Also from my research found that in some Sci – Fi movies they follow the convention of outlandish costumes as they are set far forward in the future so therefore the costumes will be different from present day. However found other Sci – Fi movies such as inception and I am legend, the costume in the movie used is not completely absurd or disturbing to an audience and the costumes used can still be seen in the present. For our 2 minute opening sequence we followed the conventions of the costumes used in the sci-fi film inception as our film was not set to far in the future so a drastic change was unrealistic.

picture below showing a contrast in the costumes used in two sci – fi films inception and flash gordon

During my product research I chose the opening sequence to Inception and X

Men

This is a close up shot of a key character in the film, washed up by the sea

creating curiosity & mystery which as a Sci fi genre would aim to do. Modern movies like to spell out every detail because it believes the audience do not want to work out anything. As already we are trying to figure out where the character has come from and why he is there.

In our opening scene we see Jack suddenly appear in front of Chantel where before we see him behind her. This could suggest to an audience that Jacks may have extraordinary powers are usually speculate about the future, which follows a Sci fi convention. Also similar to inception which indicates in the film a character with incredible skills & knowledge. Also we can identify straight away which character is under threat.

Science fiction films are usually set in a futuristic setting, alternative universe, culture society etc. However some are set close to modern day. The locations where we set out our opening sequence was in a modern street society. During my research found that science fiction films that are set close to modern day were also set in similar setting having close links to street and people within the society. Therefore by shooting by our scenes around those setting created the science fiction convention in our media product.

How does your media represent particular

social groups?

• Our opening sequence represents social groups such as teenagers. We can tell both characters are teenagers. People immediately associate teenagers with hoodies, gangs and trouble. This film backs up that idea showing Jack dressed up in a hoody we also hear him receiving an order from somewhere else indicating he is part of a group or gang. We also see that jack was not afraid to confront Chantel, showing there is no love loss between the characters. Therefore this film is representing teenagers as troublesome thugs who would go to great lengths to get what they want.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media

project and why?

As our media product is an opening sequence to a horror film, it is more likely to be distributed in the film industry. Film four is the is the obvious institution to think of, as it takes on young British talent and helps them to develop into successful directors. However after looking at similar films we saw that Warner Bros was the institution that distributed Inception. Therefore letting them distribute our product may help it become successful as people can relate to other films of similar genres that they have liked from the same institution. However I would imagine it would a lot harder to get involved with an institution such Warner Bros as they have a worldwide reputation, whereas Film Four has a national reputation meaning we would have a much bigger chance of having our product distributed by them

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our target audience would be an age range of 16 to 34 year olds predominantly teenagers. I feel this is the age range that can most easily relate to teenagers and are most likely to be interested and understand this genre. I feel because the characters in the film are in their teens, appeals more to the teenage market.

It is more likely to appeal to a lower/middle class audience as the styling and the speech of the characters are less likely to appeal to an upper class audience

we also took into account our primary and secondary

research.

In our questionnaire predominately the age range was between 16 to 34 therefore, we thought that this would be appropriate.

How did you attract/address your audience?

The audience is immediately attracted as our opening sequence goes straight into the action of Jack walking down the road seen talking on the phone. This grabs audience attention as to what he is saying which sets of the film. Also in the scene Jack appear to follow Chantel which creates tension and suspense when she turns around however does not see him with eerie music. The audience may side with Chantel as she is female therefore may be more vulnerable towards a male.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of

constructing this product?

From constructed this product using programme technologies such as Final Cut Pro we learnt to piece together & cut out unnecessary part of the film, to achieve our final product. Final Cut also allowed me to add effect such as a fade where necessary. From the programme motion I learnt how to add titling effectively into our piece and to select appropriate font & effects.

During the shooting process we had to handle equipment such as camcorder, microphone, boom pole, headphones, tripod. As the result of previous experience with equipment from the preliminary task we had knowledge as to how to use and set up equipment efficiently.

Programmes used for the edit of our film which was done by Patricia our groups main editor:

• Final cut pro

• Motion

• Garageband

• Screen shot of final cut

Screen shot showing our video clip on Final Cut

ready to be edited

• Screen shot of motion & GarageBand

Screen shot of the programme motion

where I experimented with some effects for the titling of our film

Garageband allowed me to create my own

music

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have

learnt in the progression it to the full product?

In media I have learnt so much, firstly I learnt dedication and teamwork. Nothing could have been possible without my teams camerawork, editing &

ideas to guide our project.

The preliminary exercise gave me the opportunity to become familiar with the equipment and to try out different camera shots. I feel the preliminary helped to save time learning how to use the equipment and editing programmes. While I was doing the preliminary I was just getting used to working the programmes so at this point did not have enough knowledge yet on how to add music to our film.

Looking back on my preliminary task and my final product I can see how far I have progressed in both editing and filming. I have learnt what all the different camera shots are & and how to achieve the shot using the camera. I also learnt how to cut scenes, add transitions and reduce the volume of certain sounds. I also learnt that for tunes I needed to download them first then import on to my film. Finally saw the importance of planning for a film.