Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and

conventions of real media products?

We constructed a media product of a film opening, which had to last a maximum of two minutes.

We agreed to have both of our stories set to be on the genre of action. For our first option, we chose an action/ thriller opening entitled Imposter. This introduced us to a businesswoman who was about to hand over the immigrant to the antagonist. In mid-productivity, a slight twist is about to be revealed. Instead, the transition of the immigrant turns into a conflict.

Our second option was an action/ superhero film opening. This introduced us to the protagonist and antagonist only. We did decide to include flashbacks of the previous protagonist; however, due to the reduced amount of timing, we could not film any flashbacks. This would also mean that there would be an additional amount of editing.

Our media product uses a variety of camera angles to connote the sense of speed in our action opening. We started our opening with an establishing shot and pan shot to show the location.

From then, we used some long and medium shots of the chase-taking scenes. We then started to use closer shots, such as medium shots.

We changed how we were going to present the credits on screen by placing the credits next to the characters, whilst acting. We were influenced by this technique used in Doghouse. However, we did not use the exact technique, because when they introduced the credits with the characters, they paused for some time before continuing the action.

We did not use low-key lighting because we filmed our entire film opening in daylight. This meant that it would have been harder to represent the antagonist because we assumed that the audience would be able to easily identify the antagonist this way.

The protagonist is represented as a superhero through the use of the effects made and shown from the scar. The P.O.V shots were used to indicate that this character was the protagonist.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

All the actors in our media product are female. The reason why we chose to have female characters in our film was because our group only consisted of females. However, we could have filmed male characters, but decided not to as we tried to convey that there was nothing wrong with women also starring in action films.

The protagonist is portrayed through a mixture of apprehension and dominance by the use of her body language and facial expressions. The antagonist is also represented as a dominant character, nonetheless, with a hint of perplexity. Both characters are dominant in their own ways. The protagonist is dominant through the use of her super powers.

A tilt angle to represent the authority of the protagonist.

A pan movement of the antagonist’s figure to represent her way of dominance.

The antagonist is dominant by murdering the previous protagonist in the past. We previously did intend to have flashbacks of the previous protagonist. However, we did not have enough time to produce the flashback as we would need to choose additional locations- this would also mean more editing. When the antagonist had murdered the previous protagonist, this is how the scar was passed onto the present protagonist.

What kind of institution might distribute your media product?

I assume that Working Title Films will distribute our media product, as it is a British film production company. They produce feature films and several television productions. Working Title has also promoted many actors and actresses that were born in England, such as Keira Knightley and Simon Pegg.

Our film is also British which is why we prefer to have a British institution. This will keep the British audience intrigued in our product because our institution is highly known for their success.

Action films attract generally a male audience because of the high use of violence and props that are used. The reason we have chosen our genre to be action is because they have remained successful for a long time. Even though they are thought to be traditionally male, modern action films have begun to appeal to a wider audience with producers trying to attract not just males.

For instance, Tomb Raider and The Hunger games have both had major success because of the protagonist in both films being female.

Who would be the audience for your media product and why?

We agreed that our film would be addressed for audiences who have not yet reached adulthood. Furthermore, their interest in action would increase. Our target audience is 12A as we agreed that action films are usually addressed to young teenagers until roughly the age of 25. However, because our film only consists of female characters, it would probably appeal to a younger audience because usually, younger female actors star in action films.

How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted our audience by using editing transitions between each scene to make the scenes flow to create continuity. The variety of camera angles also helped keep the action at an established level.

This is at the end of our film opening where we faded the scene into whiteness.

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

product?

We used a camcorder to produce our video. I learnt how to upload our video clips onto the computer and import the footage into the required software. To create an effective film opening, we used Premiere Pro to edit our video clips. When we produced our final product, we also added non- diegetic sound. We also used YouTube to gain inspiration and evidence of what inspired us to produce our film opening and our genre.

We created a blog where we stored our research and planning. This was quite useful as we were able to hold multiple platforms of different media. This meant that I was able to store and locate different media products, all onto the same place.

Looking back at your prelim task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression

from it to the full product?

For my Preliminary task, I learnt how to use the camcorder effectively. We were unsure and unorganized as this was our first time to produce and direct a video. For our main task, I learnt how to use different websites to produce different media and upload them onto my blog. For instance, I used http://bubble.us/ to produce a mind map of the research I had collected of conventions of action films. I also used http://animoto.com/ to present both storyboards of the prelim and the main task into a video format.