Edward Neely

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.Our product has developed the generic conventions of british social

realism. We have developed from the typical opening. We have continued to use the narrative style but developed the product to contrast two people rather than documenting a single person. Also we have documented the present rather than the past which is what other british social realism films tend to do. We have researched other british social realism films and used similar ideas from some but included the theme of rich and poor from a documentary. I think that is the biggest development although a lot of films document, ours contrasts between two different people at a present time contrasting and comparing the similarities and differences between them. The conventions do suggest that it is a British social realism film opening because it clearly shows two British teenagers. We tried to make our opening as original as possible, therefore it does not show what other films influenced us. This is what we aimed to do because we wanted to include the generic conventions but still be original.

These frames show the key points within our opening sequence. Each frame shows what shots we chose to take and also a feel of each scene. The picture 4 frame shows the simple titles we chose to introduce the name to the film.

How does your media product represent particular social groups? Our product is based around focusing on different social

groups, The main social groups represented are age and social class mainly social class as you hardly see varied ages but it gives an insight into a teenagers life so it is related to age. one character is a well-off person with an organised and flowing life, the other is a poor person with a last-minute, rushed life. It shows the social group difference in the mise-en-scene, especially the settings and costumes. Upper and lower class are represented in a more stereotypical ways. The upper class teenager apears to be dominant because he looks at the lower class person in a disrespectful way. Also the costumes suggest that one is upper class as they are wearing smarter clothes. The way the upper character speaks also is steriotypical as he speaks in proper English, for example he says “Goodbye Mummy” instead of something like “See ya Mum”.

This could link to the target audience because they probably would have seen someone act in a similar way or look a similar way to either of the characters. Also they may have judged someone in real life in the way they judge the character.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?I think this product could be produced by a major hollywood studio

for the reasons that it is a film with an interesting plot and relates to many people. It has a few elements which are similar to other hollywood films but is still original which could be a key reason why it could be distributed by a major hollywood company. Also it could however be a TV movie to educate people on homelessness and different social groups. I think the final film if it were to be finished would be too long for an internet film however if it was made to be shorter then it could be sucsessful as a internet film.As a DVD/Blueray it could make money by people either buying the film to watch again or buy to see for the first time. This would not work if it was published on the internet because people would watch it online. Also people would not want to buy it if it focused less on the entertainment side and more on the documentary side it could be shown in cinemas if it were to be for entertainment purposes which I would expect it to be.

Who would be the audience for your media product?I think the audience would be anyone who could relate to the

conventions and elements shown in the film. This is quite a wide audience because many people could be interested in other people’s life at a different age, class, gender etc. However I think the main audience would be teenagers and young adults between the ages of 14-25 mainly.

Other films similar to ours are ‘This is England’ which appeals to a broad audience, this film documents the 80’s. Many people in the teenage age range have watched this film and have fed back with positive comments. However we also have the element similar to the “Rich kid – Poor kid” channel 4 documentary which could appeal to the older generation who enjoy watching documentaries and factual media.

How did you attract/address your audience?To attract and address our audience we related many elements to

British life. Many viewers would find similarities between themselves and the characters or locations as we included more than one social class. We used naturalistic mise-en-scene to achieve this. The camerawork and editing helped the viewer to feel the naturalism of the product. We chose a idea that would appeal to many people outside of Britain also. People outside of Britain may be interested in British life and British social class. I think the fact that the lower class teenager is homeless could shock viewers as they may not know that many teenagers are on the streets and this could spark an interest in the film. The audience are put in the position of both characters by seeing the characters morning routine, one more stressful than the other due to bad organization. The viewer will see the lower class teenager rushing to college after sleeping in after a rough night. On the viewer this impacts their emotions as they understand how the lower class teenager has a harder life due to the issue of money and class.

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

We have learned lots from this project but mainly built on previous skills, practised and produced a better product than the last project. We independently used the computer software and used the cameras to produce high quality footage. In final cut whilst editing our footage we experienced some problems with the sound which led us to learning how to use a tape deck, however this did not solve the problem and we ended up having to manually synchronise the audio with the video by plotting points on both the video and the audio and aligning them. Apart from this we had no other major problems with the technology. We didn’t use any extra equipment to enhance the footage as we wanted to keep a naturalistic feel to the footage. In final cut we also had to add in the alarm sound as there was no alarm sound whilst we were filming. We timed the alarm perfectly from when the clock changed to when the clock stopped. We had to change the levels also to make it sound more diagetic, this was a new skill we learned.

We used garageband to produce the soundtrack, this was simple as we knew exactly what we wanted to create from the soundtrack research. However, the clips in garageband itself were limited and we had to work with what we had to produce a quality soundtrack. It was useful because it simplifies the whole process of making a soundtrack as it cuts out the recording and timing elements.

Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?Surely this is the same as the previous one:Our preliminary task required us using pre-made storyboards to help us capture

our footage but in the actual project we had to make them ourselves. We learned how to make a good storyboard and animatics as a detailed plan to film alongside. This helped our shooting be time efficient. We learned lots from the research process as we had to look into other thrillers in detail and analyse them for our blog. This helped us not only with ideas but helped us with the editing and how to make it look professional. All the detailed planning made the whole filming and editing process much easier. Our shot types improved greatly during the project and we knew what shots to use to get the right feel, we also managed to take good shots with the knowledge we had learned from the preliminary and along the way. Knowing the terminology helped communication within the group also. I feel much more confident with the equipment and totally understand how it all works as I conducted a large part of the filming and learned all the functions on the camera and knew how to use the tripod etc.

Our final product was good and fulfilled the task, however, due to technical problems, major props weren’t used (such as the photo in the dark room). So we had to make do with a blank piece of paper to convey the general idea. Despite the problems I think our group managed to overcome them well. I think we worked well as a team and I am glad I chose to work with the team members that I did.