LOST LOVE

CCR ADVANCED PORTFOLIO

MEDIA STUDIES ALEVEL

MARYAM MUNAF

Q:HOW DO YOUR PRODUCTS USE OR CHALLENGE CONVENTIONS AND HOW DO

THEY REPRESENT SOCIAL GROUPS OR ISSUES

• Rather than challenging conventions of a short film with a romantic genre, I believe it follows most conventions of it. Starting from the short film itself, the title of ‘LOST LOVE’ represent a cliché plot story like all other tragic romantic movies; which is usually a legendary love story ending on a grievous tone, due to various reasons including, death, the couples family not supporting on their relationship ,physical distance due to one out of the two going away for war or shifting countries, and the most common and simplistic reason which I've indirectly suicide.

• portrayed as the reason for the couple splitting up in my short film too, is that they were simply not working out and eventually broke up. Hence the story in my short film is a typical plot of a classic love story shown in all forms of media, whether it'd be a short film or a music video. It portrays an enchanting love between a boy and a girl, which eventually ends. However like in most romantic plots, the boy and girl are ultimately reunited and instantly their love is rekindled; my short film has a bit different ending as the boy commits suicide.

• The short film is about a teenage love story, where the boy is shown the reminisce her love, showing flash backs of their time together, portraying how ecstatic they were when they were together, and finally commits suicide

• The narrative of romance films/trailers usually follow a conventional "boy meets girl" set up, which consists of the main male character meeting the main female character and them eventually falling in love. This has proven to be a successful narrative structure of romance films in the past, the target audience often expect to see a plot like this in romance films.

• Often the film will involve some sort of disequilibrium which forces the characters to break up or be separated, the cause of this could be: another character, one of them moving away, or even one of them dying etc.

• The film will most likely have one of two endings. The first being the "happily ever after" ending where the love interests are reunited and live the rest of their lives together, therefore this is the equilibrium in the film because everything is solved and the characters are happy.

• The second ending is the opposite of the first where the love interests don't get back together, often this is due to one of them dying. This usually happens in tearjerker or Romance Drama films, sometimes even social realism films.

• I have used this convention as my short film starts when boy meets a girl and then they fall in love. After that they broke up and the guy commits suicide.

• Flowers are a prop conventionally used in romance trailers/films because they symbolize beauty and have connotations of love and affection.

Giving them as a gift has been perceived as romantic for a long time and

therefore they are used as a way to emphasize romantic feelings between characters even I have used this convention when the guy gives a bouquet of roses.

• Costumes shown in my short film are vey casual as for most romance films the characters will just wear casual clothing such as jeans and t-shirts/coats. This is because the stock characters are often teenagers and teenagers are often stereotyped to wear casual clothes.

• Other than that, my short film follows the conventions of a romantic genre in terms of many typical scenes that I've shot such as the flash back cut in of the garden scene, and the beach scenes where they're running after each other, and taking a long walk along the sea, are all very conventional scenes shot in every short film of such a genre. I've just highlighted their closeness, and emotion towards each other through capturing moments such as them hugging each other, holding hands, and twirling her around in his arms. Generally, I've used conventional angles such as close up and POV shots where she's opening the door, or showing her feet walking on the beach, to focus on the minor details of each scene.

• Lastly, I've put in shots of the sky like any other short film as there are always few short shots of nature, or something not relating to the video at all to not make the video a drag and divert the viewers attention for about two seconds. Other than common using the concept of several cut ins to show flashbacks, I've used the conventional editing of fading out the saturation and color of the shots to make it seem as if they were flash backs too. I've used slow motion in many scenes to make it seem more dramatic.

• I have used some shots from real life movies such as fault in our stars

• My short film represents teenagers. Its true that one of the stereotypical of such an age is ‘young love’. Teenagers are known to be emotionally driven, and deep in love with their loved one . This convention also shown in most romantic media plots .i have not covered a stereotypical view of women, which is that women are emotional, and sensitive’ as it is portrayed as a social issue whereas in my short film the guy is more emotional .It brings out inequality which is why its social issue. In my music video, I've also represented the guy in an emotional tone as the guy rather than the girl is shown to be continuously reminiscing her past, and in dismay over loosing the one he loves. Hence I've shown the guy side of the story to be very emotionally driven, and continuously grieving as he does not have control over his mental state.

The main, bold, title of the short film ‘lost love” is essentially the main focus. It tells the potential audience the general moral and meaning of the short film. The word lost love also has connotations such as love, danger ,death, fear that reflect the artists relationship with each other. The red color in the poster also shows the depth of love shown in this film

How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of “BRANDING”

• ” A BRAND is sum of all the feelings, thoughts and recognition (positive or negative), that people in the targeted audience, associates with a company, or a product or service. • 'Branding' is undouble considered an important element in success of a media product. To start with the SHORT FILM, For our video a synopsis was written along with a proper storyboard and list of scenes. Audience survey took place, which helped to decide what genre to choose and who’ll be the target audience and what should be the concept of the shortfilm

• the marketing targets large audiences, they will have higher expectations and will create an uproar about this film. This will create a sense of branding, the film and its theme will become popular and people will be waiting to watch it impatiently. The film will also be featured in several reckoned film festivals hence it will be held in high regard and will be given importance. Secondly,the main character,the guy and the girl,are teenagers they have their own style,they wear light makeup and stylish clothes which can inspire many teenagers to be like them because they might find them impressive or “cool.This may start a new fashion trend and consumers may focus on producing and purchasing merchandise which resembles this character’s style.Audiences might even discover and start buying products from brands the actors are wearing in the film.

• I have used the same color (red) as a sign of fear in Video, invitation and the webpage. RED is used as a sign of fear which is the similarity between my webpage, poster and video.

Q) HOW DOES YOUR PRODUCT ENGAGE WITH AUDIENCE AND CAN IT BE DISTURBUTRED AS A REAL MEDIA TEXT?

• Generally my short film is a mass production product and doesn't target any sort of niches, such as a particular subgroup of people, therefore it can be catered to a varied age bracket of people. It’s a neutral short film and can appeal to all genders, age, and cultures. The plot of the short film, is very general and can be catered to a mass audience. However, I do believe such a plot will mostly attract females, aged from teenage years to 25 years of age. This is because such plots are most relatable at this specific age, and relatively females will be more attracted towards such a plot line as they can emotionally refer and relate to such incidents. Hence it caters to a large audience, normally aged above 12 years, and having a rating of ‘U’. I will initially choose a website to market my product along with using sites such as Sound Cloud and YouTube

Q) HOW DID YOU INTERGRATE TECHNOLOGIES (HARDWARE, SOFTWARE, AND ONLINE) IN THIS

PROJECT• For my portfolio, I mostly developed knowledge about software’s to edit

movies through using various different sites, and apps, such as Imovies, Windows movie maker, Sony Vegas, Fotor, and Picasa. I used such software's to edit my videos for great precision and extensive detail. One of the most important elements I developed knowledge about was transitional effects, since my video is based mainly on flash backs, I needed some kind of transitions to put in between each changing scene in order to somehow stitch everything together into a well connected video. This is where I used the blur effect for every scene change. Another effect which I used immensely was the fade to black, this I used before and after each flash back scene to make sure it seems like the scene is now changing and going into the past.

• Lastly, the usage of the decoloring effect was very important in the scene where both of them are lying down and suddenly the scene decolors slowly. Such scenes couldn't have been so realistic if I hadn't put in editing transitions. Another key aspect was basic editing in terms of handling the shadows, highlights, contrasts and saturation in each scene. It was very important to make sure that each flash back scene is distinguishable enough to actually be seen as a scene in the past rather than in the present. Clear color schemes changes needed to made in order to get that semi black look for each flash back. The garden scene brought to bright daylight colors in order to make the whole scene look beautiful and well contrasted.

• Two of the key element I newly learnt as apart of the A2 media requirements were the film festival invites and the webpage. As I was developing the film festival invite, I learnt how to use various soft wares such as Fotor and Picasa to edit my pictures. I precisely edited them into high saturated, and bright color schemed pictures, to make sure they look as appealing in order to instantly catch eyes of any viewer passing.

• I learned how to make a collage, and put two pictures together, along with developing the knowledge of so many editing effects that you can put on the pictures to make them look beautiful. I also learnt how to make WebPages, which required so much effort, and hard work. I had to individually create each pages’ background, to make the site look as appealing and less mundane as possible.

• I had to design each pages’ layout differently, such as where to place the footer of the page, or where does the toolbar go, or even where the main menu needs to be set. Hence I had to place each and every content uploaded in a specific manner, designed in away to make the website look as organized as possible. I learnt to design these pages through choosing the correct color scene, to match each contrasted background. More over, I learnt how to make contact forms as displayed on the last page of the site, which is the contact link, where you can send your feedback to the website. Lastly, I got a hand of using my camera on different modes. Such as the macro mode, which I used in all the close up scenes to get a good quality frame where everything is in deep focus.