Evaluation of my media product
The opening sequence that I created with my group is named ‘C@ll Me’. The genre we chose for the opening sequence is teenage romance, as there were two girls including me and one boy in our group we felt that we would enjoy this and also be familiar with the genre. We used typical genre stereotypes as our two main characters, these were; ‘the intelligent, studious type’ and ‘the popular male student’.
The social group our product represents is stereotypical teenagers, we chose to stick to these stereotypes because we thought that the audience would be able to relate to them also, this establishes the genre of the film in the first two minutes. The way we have represented these social groups is firstly establishing the setting and background of which each character is from. In the beginning of our opening sequence we used the bedrooms of each character to show the contrasting personalities. The female teenager’s bedroom is neat and tidy, it is yellow in colour which is quite girly, also to show her studious personality we used mise-en-scene such as; books and a laptop. We used the mise-en-scene to emphasise the differences between boys and girls, we used a lot of teddies, cushions and blankets on the bed to show her soft side. In contrast, the male teenagers bedroom was messy, unorganised and quite dull. This was to show the relaxed, laid back quality he possesses.
The narrative we used was an msn chat window and text messages between the two teenagers. We felt this was relevant to the social group we were representing. This shows how these are among the main ways of communication between not just teenagers but adults and how it has caught on to older generations too. We also used it to show how traditional methods of communicating have been knocked out by newer technology. This is also how we created the name of the opening sequence, this not only includes the msn chat in the ‘@’ sign but also phone technology.
The lighting in our opening sequence was very natural as we wanted the sequence to be realistic and convincing.
We introduced variety to the sequence by creating very contrasting personalities for each character. This helps our sequence work because it poses the enigma of why two such different people would be interested and contacting each other.
I went on the ‘IMDB’ to investigate what institution or producers would produce and distribute our product. I found that ‘Channel 4 Films’ more commonly known as ‘FilmFour’ would consider producing our media product as their institution is a low budget production company, so they are likely to take on newish, amateur movie makers. The ‘FilmFour’ production company focus mainly on british films and film makers. However I think that our opening sequence has the basic storyline and set up for a Hollywood film, as ours is similar to some produced by US production companies such as; Fox.
We researched our target audience, we found that our target audience would be mainly females aged 14-35. The teenage age bracket would appeal to film makers as teenagers with part time jobs or pocket money have more money to spend on the cinema or films as they have no bills or food to pay for, therefore they are more likely to spend money at the cinema or on buying a film. I think our media product would appeal to people of every ethnic background, as our opening sequence could be applied to all people and situations. However, you could argue that it would be mainly white British or American background, as this is typical of other films in the same genre.
To attract and address our audience we used the typical genre stereotypes and mise-en-scene that belonged to this social group so that our audience could relate to these characters and settings. The mise-en-scene we used included; school books, bags, phones, computers and messenger windows. We used a setting, which was college that our target audience could relate to, this would make the story more relevant. We posed questions in our narrative which was a text message and a chat window. This would make the audience want to find out if they do meet up or not. Also we gave the audience extra information, they know who both characters are however the characters themselves have never met. We created a scene of collision this created tension within the opening sequence.
In the research stage of the project I used the internet to search for related genre opening sequences. The main website I chose to research this section was www.youtube.com, I used this website as it was useful to view the opening sequences. I was able to pause and rewind the videos, to pick out and define specific mise-en-scene, type of characters and behaviours which were common in the opening sequences I viewed. Using ‘youtube’ I never had doubts about reliability as these were clips of common movies which I had seen, however, there were certain clips of movie trailers which were spoofs.
Previous to beginning the research period each group set up a blog on www.blogger.com, we did this so we could record our progress during the research stage, making sure we had covered everything. This was also useful as the teacher was able to give feedback on our research. Our blog allowed us to import video’s, images and music to show how we had adapted our idea’s from others. Having our chosen video’s and music on our blog enabled us to go back and check if we had the qualities that they did to make our media product successful.
We used sites such as www.IMDB.com, to research marketing, audience and production companies. We found this was a reliable site and was not in any way doubtful. It produced statistics, names and useful information.
To create our opening sequence we used IMovie, using transitions, editing, titles and sound effects. The IMovie enabled us to import the filming we had done from the camera, and edit the sections we didn’t want to use. This was incredibly useful as we could edit the clips down to a second. We were also able to cut the sound which was caught from the video camera and use a music track from a site which had copyright free music.
I feel that looking back on our preliminary task and then at our completed media product we were able to use our camera angles such as; low angle shots to make the opening sequence visually effective. We learnt how to make the shots fit together and in which order they worked well. I felt that we progressed well with our editing skills. We felt that flicking back and fourth between the different characters and settings, helped to show the basic story and emphasise the contrast. In the preliminary task there was a shot where the character walks away from the camera, but in our opening sequence we felt that by having the character walk towards the camera was more effective, as it makes the audience feel more involved.
In our opening sequence we developed characters through setting and mise-en-scene, however in our preliminary task we didn’t build up the character but just simply said the lines, we didn’t use costume or setting to develop the character so in that way we have improved.
In conclusion, I felt I have learnt a lot form this task, it shows me how all the different aspects of media come together to make a media product more exciting and enticing. Without each aspect the media product would not be the same. I felt that with more effort we would have been able to make our media product more visually interesting but also accurate.
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