MEDIA STUDIES EVALUATION

By Keval Patel

BRIEF INTRODUCTION

We were tasked to create a product which appeals to teenagers after weeks of planning a research we have created a product which this evaluation is based on.

Our AS media product was created to appeal to our target of 15+.

Our genre is a hybrid genre of teen-drama-horror as we wanted something that would entertain everyone.

PRODUCTION TIMELINE

Planning

1st Draft filming

Editing

Audience Feedback

Final Cut

Final editing

PLANNING AND RESEARCH

Before we started planning for our product we carried out surveys and questionnaires for our target audience to see what kind of film they would like to go and see.

We based our media product from the results we got from our target audience.

We also found out what genre is best suited for our target audience from out the questionnaires and surveys we carried out.

Our main audiences is this movie is mainly teenagers aged 15 and upwards.

We also carried out our own research on what the typical teen movies that are out already and see some of the key conventions they hold.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B14zz1u8DU&feature=player_embedded&safe=active

RESEARCH AN D PL AN NING -STORYB OARD

CONVENTIONS Conventions we kept and why we challenged them:

Set in school. Relates to target audience teenagers

Sound : Slow beat (depressing).

Costume

Camera shots (establishing shot, pan shot, POV shot)

Love sick teen

STEREOTYPES The main characters breaks the common stereotypes of an ‘Indian teen’

Stereotypical Indian teen:

• Clever

• Greasy hair

• knows as a nerd / teachers pet

Subverted stereotypical Indian teen:

• Casual clothing

• In a relationship

• Modern

• Westernised

COMPARISON OF CHARACTER

Our main characters could be compared with Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson who play Isabella Marie "Bella" Swan and Edward Cullen in Twlight.

SIMILARITIESOur opening sequence shares a lot of similarities with ‘twilight’ as we also have a young couple in our product . It also introduces the subverted stereotypical characters.

Other movies that could be similar to ours would be ‘Jennifer's body’ as our film is very gory.

We analyzed teen drama movies such as Twilight, Project X ,Easy A and Jennifer's body The movies that I have listed above have many characteristics that are similar to our product such as costume; the majority of these films have a specific costume to represent the characters so we did the same with our actor and actress. 

DIFFERENCE

We show a lot of the location

Ethnicity (no characters are Caucasian due to the setting)

SOCIAL GROUPS

Our genre is teen/horror and so I do not think it will be suitable for kids aged 14 and lower.

Our 2 minutes opening sequence has sadness, emotions and feelings and so it is suitable for any one male or female aged 15 and over.

Also there is and thriller /horror type music in our opening sequence scenes, which also represents the particular social groups which is teen/horror.

Another key element which made our media product which represented the teenage social group was the use of sound, Sound normally sets the mood of the scene,

females could be more attracted to the product as there I similarities to twilight.

MEDIA DISTRIBUTION…

I think that out movie would be best suited to be distributed by 20th century fox. 20th century fox is one of the major distributions companies which is available right now. I think that due to its company name and its top grossing movies, our movie would do great under their rank. Not only that but due to its success with Jennifer body and many other films, I think 20th century fox would be successful again in distributing our movie.

DISTRIBUTION - ESTABLISHMENT….

Cinemas would be the best way to introduce our product.

To gain more success I would say that our movie should be released internationally, by doing this piracy should be reduced as if we were to release just in the UK, It would be quickly pirated in other major countries likes the USA, where we should just most of our income.

AUDIENCE…

Teens aged 15 and would be the best target audiences for this 2 minutes opening scene of our product, Treading Softly.

After weeks of research we decided that teenagers who are over 15 and over must be able to understand and feel what is happening in the film.

Teenagers normally like drama films like twilight, this is because it shows the audience the life based upon a group of teenagers.

The reality of the film makes them wanting to watch the film from other films.

We are using the same concept in our product of using 2 teenagers who were in deeply loved each other but one of them is killed. 

SECONDARY AUDIENCE…

Our secondary audience would be young adults from the ages of 20-25.

We have specified this as our secondary audience as our movie would bring nostalgia about them being back in school.

This makes our product semi-relatable for them.

AUDIENCE ATTRACTION

We attracted our media product to the audience by using the media language, such as cinematography, sound, mise-en-scene and editing.

For cinematography, mid range shot (to show the action happening), close up shot (to show emotions, and face expressions on the character’s face), and many more.

For sound we used, thriller/horror sound (the sound you as an audience expect to hear).

For Mise-en-scene (all the things you see in the scene), we used clothes, bench and fake blood which I am sure the audience must of found very scary, as they don’t actually see what happens at the end of the scene. 

DIFFERENT MEDIA USED TO AT TRACT OUR AUDIENCE

The use of various media to attract out audience such as:

Facebook pages- this along with our blog used to keep our audience up to date with our progress

Blogs- keeping audience up to date and informed.

Posters- to attract a move wider audience and to simply entice who we aim to target.

TECHNOLOGIESI have learnt that there are lots of ways in which different media product are shown, for example you can watch a film now days anywhere you want.

With a Iphone, you could do multiple things such as watch movies, make a phone call, send an e-mail, listen to music, and browse the internet and other epic things.

Also we learnt how to use editing software, such imoive to edit our product and garageband to create our music.

For our poster we to learnt how to use Photo Shop because it the best software to use to create things.

Using the blogs, to keep everything and everyone up to date.

One of thing which I found very difficult was using the video editing software. I have used professional video editing software called final cut pro, but for this our media product we had been provided with video editing software called imoive.

I now do know the basics of this program with the help of my teacher and my team.

TECHNOLOGY - CAMERAWORK…

Using the video camera with a tripod was another process, in which we had leant about now we know when the correct time to use tripods to stabilize shots.

This makes our product look more professional.

We have also learnt on when different modes on the camera settings.

The camera shots are also smooth for e.g. panning shots and not shaking. Which gives it a professional look.

PROGRESSION FROM PRELIMINARY

I feel that taking random shots is not the way of filming, there is a reason for each shot as it represents something for example a low angle majorly shows that a character or that object is worth less, no authority or is looked down upon.

Form the preliminary it was a big step for me to learn how to shoot and get good shots properly, as before I didn’t know of any camera shots but now I have learnt that these key elements are very important.

Another thing I have improved is on Photoshop. Having some knowledge of using Photoshop is a very good thing as it helped us with our Production poster

Now I had good feedback coming from everyone, other group members and especially the target audiences. 

AUDIENCE FEEDBACKWe posted a rough cut of our opening scene. This is because we wanted to get feedback from out target audience and see what changes we could make to our product to make it more appealing.

In our first post of the rough cut we received some feedback which we as a group though were right and need some changing, so we decided to make some changes to our opening scene.

Here are the feedbacks from our rough cut: 

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

Strengths WeaknessesEditing OrganisationCamera Work Time scheduling Music