Evaluation of Media Coursework
The foundation project was definitely an experience in terms of creatively thinking your way around creating a media product. Throughout the process of deciding what to create, planning how to create it and indeed, actually creating it, many different ideas crossed my mind and in doing so shaped how it was made.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
· The conventions and stereotypes that my work conforms to are typical of a romantic comedy film. The main characters are dysfunctional in that they are badly organised or do not seem to conform to what seems to be the typical person. The fact that the main character has overslept by a whole day demonstrates this. My video uses a character similar to Hugh Grant, who has been successful in many romantic comedies such as Notting Hill and Love Actually. I utilised this central figure who has proved popular with the audience for romantic comedies. The conventions of relationships are also used in my product, with some similar aspects as the TV drama 'Spaced'. Also, the convention of youth being portrayed as obsessed with drink and drugs has been challenged as I have represented the age group as wanting to be organised, and have a successful long-lasting relationship. Other real media products such as One Foot in the Grave, and Faulty Towers are examples of how the comedic element appeals to older age groups.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
· There are few social groups shown in my project, this is due to the length of my video being under 2 minutes. My main characters are students, therefore are represented as being very sociable. Initially, I had many ideas as to what my characters would represent, these included such characters the typical mastermind or the mild mannered office worker. My product represents the youth not as dysfunctional, but as people who want organised relationships and have ordinary lives. This group of characters as represented in my video is similar to the releases of other romantic comedies such as the main characters featured in Four Weddings and a Funeral and Love Actually. The male voice which is on the radio for a short amount of time in my video represents the radio as having an authoritative tone, with the voice staying in a low, smooth pitch. Gender is represented in my video, with the main character at the start being male, and ending with a female character, keeping the balance of gender central.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
· I would expect my film to fit into the genre of romantic comedy, because of this I would expect it to perhaps fit into normal cinema. By normal cinema I mean if the rest of the film followed the conventions of romantic comedies such as making a point of awkward circumstances and emphasising social blunders I would expect it to be considered mainstream. The audience I would also expect to be interested in my video would be adults who get a sense of nostalgia from watching romantic comedies with young people, reminding them of times when they were that young. Institutions that produce media for the younger generations would distribute my product because they the audience would see themselves in the characters. Channels such as Film 4 which features independent films, quirky films and films of a similar genre to my video. The channel is soon to screen 'How to Lose Friends and Alienate People' which is a prime example of a british romantic comedy. The channel prides itself in showing films that it claims 'go somewhere we haven't seen other British films go'.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
· The age demographic for my film would probably be between 16 – 30. This would be because younger audience members could relate to the main character more than the elderly and middle-aged adults, probably because of being a student as well. Adults would also be apart of my audience because of the nostalgic element I have already mentioned above, remembering themselves at that age. The comedic value my film has in the opening would also appeal to people who enjoy the comedy genre of film. Also, as I have already said above, the audience for my product will be similar to that of popular films such as Notting Hill, which was nominated for 3 Golden Globe Awards as well as Love Actually which was nominated for 2.
How did you attract/address your audience?
· The opening 15 seconds is the part of the opening which will attract my audience and keep them interested. In this part, the first joke is used, having comedy so early on in the film immediately gets the audience to laugh and pay more attention. The use of light hearted music at the start of my video would also appeal to my target audience. Also, my main task involves a theme of organising life against the clock, something which all audiences can relate to, having to be certain places at certain times and being able to cope with rushing around. Time management is a fairy universal subject to use, as it applies to nearly everyone's lives. The mise en scene is also recognisable for scenes in a romantic comedy, the 180-degree panning shots are iconic of being confused, while at the same time, the objects in the shot are familiar to the audience.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
· I have learnt that the process of creating a piece of video, of any length is a complex and detailed procedure. Prior to the creating of my product, I went on a specialist training session in an Apple shop where some experts explained the software to me. While creating my project I have undoubtedly furthered my knowledge of how to create shots, and of how shots are created on television in the media. I have also definatly learnt a lot more about the editing of footage, the amount of editing that is used in television programmes today has become much more apparent to me after editing my own work. Using the Macs at my school, I have become very familiar with the ‘iMovie’ program, although very easy to use as Apple suggests, it lacks the details and catalogue of effects that most Windows editors seem to have. Apart from this setback, I was able to use the features that iMovie did have available, such as extracting audio from a video track, and changing the volume on specific clips of audio. The mastering of technology has also been essential in creating comic elements such as jokes. Just using editing and the juxtapositioning of shots I created jokes.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
· When starting the Preliminary task I had very little knowledge about the method I was going to use to produce my footage. After having produced one piece of finished film in the Preliminary task I knew what would be expected in the main task, this meant I was able to think of more ideas that I knew I would be able to film. The filming in particular was a subject I knew very little about. When first I used the video camera to test its capabilities I thought about how certain shots would physically be captured. This got me thinking about the technicalities of all shots I saw in the media. Of course most shots taken by cameras in the media have the full benefit of fairly large amounts of funding and top range equipment, meaning I knew I would not be able to attempt anything as ambitious as them, but the principles were the same. Shots like the two-shot and the reverse shot were still possible, as well as panning shots and over-the-shoulder shots. My editing abilities also improved after having done the preliminary task, which leads me to believe that the best way to learn the techniques is to practice using them.
