Candidate No: 2457

Centre Name: The Bishop’s Stortford High School

Centre No: 17201

Please use the ‘categories’ on the right hand side and select film production.

My podcast can be found at www.natasha5.podbean.com

Intro

Following our preliminary task, our final assignment was to create the opening two minutes of a film; we chose to create a film of the thriller genre.  I enjoyed working as a group of three, as I felt there were enough of us to contribute and offer variety of ideas but not too many people so that we had to shout across each other to be heard. Furthermore, we all equally contributed ideas for the plot and discussed possible shot types to include. However it was often difficult to incorporate each individual’s ideas into the final product, which sometimes caused some tension within the group.

Originally we had wanted to create an action film in the style of ‘James Bond’, as a contrasting genre to our preliminary video. However this idea was rejected by the group as it would have been extremely difficult to create a high quality action film on a low budget. Therefore we decided a horror/thriller would be of a higher quality as it requires less equipment. Following the idea to create a horror/thriller, we constructed the main outline of the plot, being that there would be two females. However we did not originally plan to have them connected through a ‘love triangle’ as we planned to create a film in the style of ‘The Ring’ with the main plot being based around white noise and a television set. This idea slowly deteriorated as the idea of a third person was introduced, the character Nick, however there is still evidence of our original concept at the beginning and end of the sequence.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

When constructing our media product, we analysed and deconstructed similar media texts of the same genre to ensure that we included effective conventions of real horror films. For example we chose to cross cut between the footage and the opening and studio titles, to show snippets of the film without revealing too much, to create confusion on the audience. Furthermore we noticed that after two minutes of the film ‘Scream 3,’ the tone of the film suddenly becomes a lot more sinister as the plot begins. The first two minutes was occupied by setting the scene and familiarising the audience with the main characters. We decided to include this in our film, at approximately 2:10 minutes the title ‘One year earlier…’ is displayed on screen so that the story of Charlotte’s death becomes known to the audience, after two minutes of scene setting and introducing two of the main characters.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Although our film does not reveal the relationship between Charlotte and Emily, we discussed this in our plot synopsis and decided that Nick had left Charlotte to have a relationship and family with Emily. We felt that the fact that we chose the male to leave the female character, as opposed to the female leaving the male character reinforces traditional gender stereotypes. This is because stereotypically it is the male who leaves the female for a younger, more attractive partner. Furthermore the fact that Charlotte was so depressed (now bitter) reinforces the stereotypical belief that women are more emotional. Therefore within our film gender has been represented negatively.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Popular film studios such as DreamWorks pictures would distribute our film as they have been known to distribute similar films of this genre, examples include The Ring and What Lies Beneath. Furthermore DreamWorks might then distribute our film to multi-national cinema chains such as ‘Cineworld,’ ‘Empire’ or ‘Odeon’ who might screen our product as it follows the conventions of other films shown at these cinemas. Also by creating a trailer for our film we could promote the film within the adverts of an ITV mainstream programme so that we could attract maximum viewers. Similarly we hope that it may also be converted to DVD after cinema release.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

From our primary research we have noticed that similar media products such as The Ring and What Lies Beneath are mainly consumed by teenagers, therefore we have also decided to pitch our product at teenagers. We have not specifically aimed our product at one gender as it could be viewed by a group of single sex peers who want to scare each other as well as couples who may be on a date and may seek comfort from their partner. However it is more common that a group of girls will consume this product rather than a group of boys. Hence, our story is focused around a sour and bitter relationship to attract the female audience. Furthermore our questionnaire told us that over 70% of people asked, prefer to watch a film of this particular genre with a group of friends, socially. I feel that the use of females throughout this sequence attracts our audience, particularly the female audience as females can sympathise with the characters within the film. Also the use of a soundtrack can be used as a method of attracting an audience during promotion, as it is this element of a film that becomes memorable to audiences.

How did you attract/address your audience?

The audience research summary provided us with concise indication as to what is required in order to create a successful film amongst our target audience. However the final cut surveys provided us with a more extensive and detailed feedback. The comments we received were mostly very positive, unfortunately some still failed to fully understand the narrative. Therefore this allowed us to further simplify the clarity of the narrative to enhance understanding. Changes suggested by our target audience encouraged the group to consider elements we would do differently if we had the opportunity to carry out this project again. We decided that our project would a lot more effective if we had access to more advanced editing software such as ‘Pinnacle Studio 12’ as it features more complex and advanced transitions and video effects. However this starts at approximately £39.99 and I am not in a position in which I can buy this.

After surveying an audience, their feedback highlighted minor issues with the clarity of the film’s narrative, as the first version of the film was slightly unclear. Therefore we felt it was essential to tweak this to maximise an audience’s understanding. However we felt this was quite difficult, after deconstructing similar media texts we noticed that there was little time to successfully present a detailed narrative. We decided to cut out shots that may confuse the narrative, for example we cut a scene which originally came at the end of the film after the television turns itself off. This was primarily due to poor lighting conditions; the audience were unable to see what was happening at this point of the film.

Also we were unable to record the character’s verbal reaction to this particular scene. This was due to limitations with the equipment we had access to, for example we did not have access to a separate microphone to record the dialogue and the camera was unable to capture clear audio, this too affected the clarity of the narrative as the situation was difficult to interpret.

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

From constructing this product and other similar products I have learnt to effectively use editing software such as ‘Windows Movie Maker’ and ‘Cuebase 2.0’ to record a voice over and a soundtrack and successfully combine them series of clips to create a continuous video. We used ‘Windows Movie Maker’ to edit our film into clips and add the voiceover plus effects and transitions in order to entice our audience. If we had the funding we would have used a more professional editing software such as ‘Pinnacle Studio 12.

In order to record the piece that Ben Cork composed for us, we used the music technology software ‘Cuebase 2.0’. We then imported the piece onto a USB stick and transported it to our editing computer and mixed the piece with the action on-screen. I am now able to synchronise a soundtrack and voice over with the appropriate footage, which requires separating the soundtrack so that the voice over can be placed in between the separated clip and then merged and faded in and out where necessary. I used this method throughout, to run a soundtrack through the majority of the film whilst incorporating a voice over without hesitation, therefore the merged soundtrack and voice over continues to play smoothly.

Furthermore, during the research process we were able to watch DVDs and browse online to deconstruct relevant scenes to borrow and adapt the decisions made by Hollywood producers and directors to enhance our creativity. Similarly the use of the internet allowed us to create an online audience survey, so that we could identify and target our audience and give them what they want. With digital technology we were able to send over 50 hyperlinks to our questionnaires via email to friends and family. This generated a wealth of response quickly and cheaply. With feedback from the questionnaires we were able to develop our creativity by including suggestions from our audience with our ideas.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

After creating a short film for our preliminary task I believe that I have learnt the importance of paying attention to detail, throughout both the filming and editing processes. After receiving feedback from our preliminary task it was highlighted that perhaps the soundtrack we had chosen did not match the style of the product, we had chosen to use a track from a local band. Therefore we were determined not to make the same mistake when creating the final product. We made full use of school facilities and asked a young musician to play and create our soundtrack with our assistance, this way we were able to control the content and the style of the music so that it was specific to our film.

Furthermore whilst creating our preliminary task, myself and one member of the group often found it difficult to encourage the third member of our group as we felt she was unable to use initiative to complete tasks. This began to build tension within the group, and as a result after the final cut she decided to work with another group for the final project. Therefore Naya and I needed to find someone to replace the girl who had left, but we wanted to make sure we did not find ourselves in the same situation so we were looking for someone we could rely on to work equally as hard. To begin with we believed we had made the right decision, however we slowly came to regret this as we felt she was not sharing the load but was relying on us to do the work. In contrast to this when asked she was able to complete a job to a high standard but had no initiative and waited to be told what to do, which created more tension and more pressure.

**Each of the actors and the musician were given talent release forms to sign, giving us permission to use their work.

It was a summer like no other… she was ambitious, smart and perfect in every way… And I was just a musician from the country… We were worlds apart… but had one thing in common.

Dialogue

Georgia: I can’t handle this any more

Calum: Well i’m obviously not good enough for you then am I?

Georgia: It’s not that, but you know how hard I’ve worked for this!

Voice Over

She had to decide… Was love really worth everything?… From the best selling novel by Shaun Warwick… What Love’s Worth… Coming this spring!

Magazine Front Cover

Magazine Evaluation

Poster

Poster Evaluation

My podcast can be found at www.natasha5.podbean.com

Candidate Name: Natasha Reynolds

Candidate No: 2457

• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

We included conventions of real media products to create a professional looking film trailer. We carried out numerous deconstructions of other film trailers (general and generic) to note the conventions of a film trailer (studio name, credits, billing block, production logo etc) as well as shot types and camera movements to make intertextual reference to. Furthermore generic deconstructions helped us create ideas for a plot as well as decide which certificate to give our film depending on content and therefore who to aim our film and trailer at. After watching some 15 rated film trailers we saw they contained quite a few scenes of a sexual nature and we knew our actors would not be comfortable doing this, so we decided to rate out film as a 12. The deconstruction process also allowed us to see genre conventions within a film trailer- in romantic film trailers we noticed that the relationship within the trailer continuously switches between the highs and lows taking the audience on a rollercoaster ride enticing them within the plot and making them want to see the outcome. We included this in our film trailer by starting off with Georgia rejecting Calum’s calls, followed by shots of them together happy and then of them arguing and then happy again.

We produced some surveys on surveymonkey.com as part of our audience research so that we could establish their viewing habits (where they like to watch films, who with, how often etc) we uploaded the url on to facebook.com- allowing our friends to see the link and complete our survey. Furthermore we used the surveys to find out what our audience wanted to see from a romantic film and what their favourite romantic films are so that we can produce a trailer for a similar film with popular conventions of a romantic film that our audience will like.

We decided to obey editing rules by using the 180º and 30º rules, eyeline matches, shot reserve shot, following forms and conventions of a professional film trailer/media product. This is so that our trailer looked as real and professional as possible and not like a student film. Whilst editing, we chose to fragment the narrative to create a sense of professionalism because during the research process we noticed that the film in a trailer is not in chronological order. Therefore we created an interesting outline of the film as whole, without giving away too much information. For example there are some shots filmed in Starbucks, originally we kept these shots as they were, but after screening our film to friends and family it became apparent that we let some scenes go on for too long. Therefore it did not represent a real media text, so we decided to have half of this scene at the beginning of the trailer and then half at the end.

We attempted to challenge traditional gender representation (often found in media texts) by choosing to have the female character Georgia represented positively as the more dominant, career driven woman. In comparison we chose to have the male character, Calum as the more creative and sensitive character. Therefore we chose to break down traditional gender stereotypes. Many texts reinforce traditional stereotypes therefore audiences recognise this and can relate to this within texts. However I still believe this can be said of our film trailer.

As any professional media company would, we kept a production log throughout the entire production. However we used www.wordpress.com to create individual blogs (www.natasha5.wordpress.com) where we noted all of our original ideas, discussions from team meetings, possible ideas, and titles and evaluations filming. We also used our blogs to store all of our deconstructions, intertextual deconstructions, location reconnaissance, plot synopsis and digital story boards.

• How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

As we chose to create a film trailer we then had to produce a film poster and film magazine cover to promote our film. I believe my ancillary texts match as I used the same image for both texts. Although the image used is not featured in the trailer, I used a clear profile shot of both main characters in. similarly I attempted to use a similar colour scheme to demonstrate professionalism and consistency. When creating my magazine front cover I used a colour scheme of red and black. This can be seen in my poster as I chose to keep all text black with the word ‘love’ in red for emphasis (similar to the poster for What Happens In Vegas). However this colour scheme has not been incorporated in our film trailer as we believed a white screen with black text did not follow the styles and conventions of any other film trailers we have seen, as most have a black background. We experimented with a black screen with red text but we felt that it gave false genre messages as it began to look like a horror film. Therefore we chose to use a black screen with white text.

I believe my final products entice the same audience as the film trailer it is apparent that they both belong to the romantic genre. This is due to the images I selected as well as the slogans I created for each text. Across the top of my poster I decided to give it the slogan ‘a story of love and sacrifice’ to give the audience more information to interest them in our film. Similarly when creating a front cover for a film magazine I created the caption ‘Premier look at this season’s biggest tear-jerker’ once again suggesting the genre of the film as well as providing additional information.

However the first draft of my magazine did not look much like a film magazine but more like a fashion or lifestyle magazine, as I had a smaller picture of Alexandra looking out to the camera with a lot of white space around her. Therefore I decided to take some new photos but this time of both actors together. I stretched this image over the whole A4 page and kept the image’s original background, in an attempt to make my magazine look less like a fashion magazine.

• What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback in the form of surveys in the pre-production stage helped us to make content and creative decisions dependent upon the results of the survey. For example we learnt that 54% of the people we surveyed watch films with a friend/partner, 25% prefer to watch films alone and the remainder choose to watch films with a group of friends. Therefore as the majority of people choose to watch films with a friend/partner we decided to make a film trailer for a film belonging to the romantic genre directly aimed at couples and people dating.

Post-production surveys allowed us to ask our audience if they understood our trailer, if it would make them want the see the film, what certificate they would give it and what genre they thought it belonged to. Therefore from this we knew that if their answers matched ours, we were reaching our intended audience. If not, we knew we had to change parts of our trailer depending on the feedback we received.

We included a combination of open and closed questions so that our audience could specific elements of the trailer they and did not like. One comment we received said “far too much focus on the café scene”. Although only one person commented on this, we had seen this as an area of concern before the first cut and decided to change the order of the clips.

• How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

When carrying out pre-production planning for our advanced portfolio we created a blog (www.natasha5.wordpress.com) containing audience surveys, minutes from production meetings, production log, plot synopsis and film trailer deconstructions.

However the deconstruction process would have been significantly more difficult before the introduction of digital technology. For example for our project we were able to watch DVDs and browse online at www.youtube.com to view and deconstruct relevant scenes to borrow and adapt the decisions made by Hollywood producers and directors to enhance our creativity.

Similarly the use of the internet allowed us to create an online audience surveys on www.surveymonkey.com, so that we could identify and target our audience and give them what they want. With digital technology we were able to post a link to our survey on www.facebook.com as well as send over 50 hyperlinks to our questionnaires via email to friends and family. This generated a wealth of response quickly and cheaply. With feedback from the questionnaires we were able to develop our creativity by including suggestions from our audience with our ideas.

We captured our footage using digital camcorders, allowing us to playback our footage after capture. Therefore if we were happy with it we could move on, if not we could just film it again. We were then able to upload it via USB so that we could edit our film on the computer using Windows Movie Maker. Also during the production stage we had access to a recording studio where we recorded our soundtrack and voiceover, for this we used CueBase 2.0, we then edited this with our film in Windows Movie Maker.

Also, with an increase in the affordability of digital cameras we have been able to enhance our creativity by producing digital storyboards and a digital location reconnaissance. Having the advantage of digital technology we were able to chose and select the best quality images to use for this and edit if necessary. Our creativity was tested when we used editing software to adjust an image so that it was of its best possible quality; this meant adjusting the saturation, contrast and brightness of the image.

I chose to produce my ancillary texts in Microsoft Word because I do not have access to other software at home. However I am extremely pleased with my final products as I believe they still meet their purpose and look professional. I used Word Art, crop, transparent colour, wrapping and freestyle crop to create my final products.

Overall due to such a large exposure to digital technology in our society it has become second nature and heavily relied upon in day-to-day life. For example is has eased the filming process and has made it possible to complete the foundation and advanced portfolios. Before digital technology we would only have been able to complete the pre-production part of the project. The advances in digital technology have allowed for subjects such as film and media studies to occur, because equipment was too large and too expensive in the past. Furthermore our constant exposure to digital technology enhances our creativity, as we are able to easily recognise elements of digital technology and incorporate them into our own projects.

Offender: Huffington Post

Media Outlet: Huffington Post website

The Offense: Who Has the Best Chest in Hollywood?

Analysis: The Huffington Post exposes its tabloid side in this cheesy and insulting poll. Readers are invited to look at photos of women celebrities in which their breasts are prominently featured and then rate them on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is “gross” and 10 is “gorgeous” — seriously, this is not a joke. Yes, the Internet is full of this kind of exploitative, sexist junk, but shouldn’t we expect better from the Huffington Post? The website links to a previous contest where readers voted on men’s chests, but that’s just a little different, don’t you think? Women are constantly judged and rated on their physical assets and sex appeal, and the Huffington Post really doesn’t need to be in the business of encouraging this practice. Not to mention, how old was the grade school boy who devised the rating scale? The use of the word “gross” is so degrading and juvenile that the folks at Huffington Post should be embarassed.

The media, fashion, cosmetics, and diet industries all promote a beauty standard that doesn’t come naturally (or cheap) to most women. Advertisers make us believe that our bodies need constant improvement, so it is not surprising that so many women are unhappy with their appearance (http://loveyourbody.nowfoundation.org

Our society is obsessed with weight loss and body image. The media portray unrealistic standards of how women should look. These messages perpetuate social norms that are often based on misinformation. Even plus-size models are usually under a size 8 when, in reality, the average woman wears a 14.

Developing a positive relationship with food and one’s body is complicated (especially during adolescence). The fact that young girls are growing up in a society focused on appearance makes it extremely difficult for them to be comfortable in their skin. A shocking 81% of 10-year-olds are afraid of being fat. (Social Issues Research Centre)

Diets are temporary — once you begin to eat “normally,” the weight is gained back. Statistics show that less than 5% of the people who diet lose weight permanently. Dieting lowers your metabolism because you take in fewer calories. This can reduce the rate at which the body burns up food in a resting state by as much as 45%! Also, diets cause people to think obsessively about food, leading them to ignore their body’s needs (Barbara Cohen, Ph.D., “The Psychology of Ideal Body Image as Oppressive Force in the Lives of Women,” 1984) .

As many as 10 million women and girls suffer from anorexia and/or bulimia in the United States alone. Young women with anorexia are 12 times more likely to die than other women their age. (http://loveyourbody.nowfoundation.org).

In 2005, about 11.5 million people — the vast majority of them women — had cosmetic procedures performed. Of these, more than 290,000 women received risky saline and silicone implants to increase the size of their breasts. The number of breast augmentations of women and teenagers has almost tripled since 1997. (www.ourbodiesourselves.org).

Labiaplasty is a procedure designed to reduce a woman’s labia. Some doctors perform 40 to 50 labiaplasties a month on women as young as 20 years old, even though they can cost upward of $4,000 and take several months to heal. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) began collecting information on vaginal rejuvenation in 2005. Growth in this area alone increased almost 30% from 2006. (www.labiaplastysurgeon.com)

The issue of men being paid more than women for the doing the same job is often raised but rarely addressed. Now there is a Single Equality Bill launched by the government with the aim to combat this pay gap.

There are many excuses that companies use as to why men often get paid more, but this bill will hopefully open up the secrecy and allow women to compete equally with their male colleagues.

It will be a few years before the bill applies across the workforce but it is a step in the right direction for fair and equal pay.