Final Product 19/04

FINAL PRODUCT

planning / construction 7

Draft video:

I have added to the draft video by putting more titles, I have kept the same font and colour since it seems to be slightly synonymous with indie type films and that is how my film would be made.

I also filmed a few more shots for the sequence, these are to implement camera movement to help the video flow. 

Lastly I have added the Film 4 production company opening at the beginning of the video, this makes it very clear who my chosen production and what the audience should be expecting from the rest of the film.

Evaluation

My entire evaluation can be seen here: http://olivertdcraig.wix.com/media-evaluation

Evaluation planning

1.
in what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

USE
shots
titles
music



DEVELOP
James Bond



CHALLENGE
story line
static camera
layers


2.
how does your media product represent certain social groups?

The representation of social groups in my final product isn't massively conventional, I think lots of people from a teen audience would feel connected to the piece somewhat due to the overall feeling. The slow spiralling black and white clouds in the background lend themselves to low thought and emotions. This is quite easy to relate to as a teenager since sad is an emotion everyone feels at some point and many people feel sympathetic to characters that are 'sad' so an instant connection is formed.  The disjointed way that the piece has been edited also lends itself to quite modernist feelings and can be connected to through the prior appreciation of modern type art. The abstract difference of the piece from normal conventional opening sequences in the sense that there is no real story line or visual relation to the rest of the film means that on its own it can be separate and appreciated as such on its individuality, these are all aspects that mid teen audiences and young adults are interested in.


3.
what kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Film 4 is know for making films with distinctive, innovative and talented people in the United Kingdom both new and already established.

Film 4 is a very large advocate for the British film industry, they do this by almost totally working with British directors and crews as well as actors, they also show this by working with new English talent in films such as producing Richard Ayoade's first feature length film Submarine (2010). Film 4 invests in film that are not entirely mainstream which is most of the British film industry save from James bond and a few others. Many of the films tackle very interesting and sometimes controversial topics, it would not be a stretch for Film 4 to produce my film as it ticks all of these boxes.

Audiences of Film 4's movies are people of all ages including my target age range, I really think Film 4 could expand my quite conservative target age range with their reputation and due to their access to the television platform which many older viewers will be watching. I think Film 4 will  have links to a wider audience not only through their television channel but also through their name being synonymous with good British films and traditional cinema, all things that my film is planned on being associated with.

4.
Who would be the audience for your media product?

My main target audience is going to be 14-19 year olds.

I chose to make my piece with this demographic in mind because the whole film would be a coming of age film and these are usually starring teenagers or children who grow throughout the film, this helps the viewers relate to the characters.

It is not only the age but the contents of the film that would point it towards this primary demographic, the activities that the actors participate in will also be ones that the teenagers will also be involved in. For example the opening of Juno (Jason Reitman, 2007) shows Ellen Page drinking Sunny D and then taking a pregnancy test, this wouldn't be too alien for many teenage girls and so a relationship is built between the character and the viewer.

The opening sequence tackles the quite controversial topic of mental health. I think this sort of theme will attract my target audience because there is a proliferation of young people interested in film and art house films such as mine has designed to be very attractive to that age range, there is also a lot more exposure to mental health issues in the younger ages, the subject is a lot less taboo among their circles. A film that they are able to relate with because it discusses mental health issues in just the same way they do within their circles. This age range is also a lot more relaxed at discussion of all topics so teenagers who are not massively into talking about mental health could be persuaded of its impact and begin a line of communication therefore making the topic much easier to discuss, this would all benefit people suffering from these illnesses due to there being much more of an acceptance of their predicament. The film could create a circle of positivity that starts with an open teenage mind leading to the wider scale acceptance of a large proportion of that demographic's daily lives.

5.
How did your attract/address your audience?

I have attracted my audience by:

Using actors of near the same age as the target audience, this will help them relate to the characters in a very physical way, an emotional connection will also come into play as the film will include many 'every day' type scenes that the target age range will experience often.

The subject of mental health is something that, although apparent to all ages of society, has recently become much less of a taboo subject within the ages of my target audience, a film discussing this topic and helping educate people who are aware of the issues but are not knowledgeable on the subject. The film will also promote positive reaction and treatment towards people who have mental health issues.

During recent years and helped by social image sharing sites like tumblr lots of teenagers have been exposed to and have begun creating and appreciating art in all forms, such is the wonders of the internet almost any type of art created can e shared to millions of people. With this new appreciated solidly held by many teenagers my films style is going to be quite art house, this type of film is very attractive to people who appreciate art to figure out what the artist want to say and what messages they can derive from the piece. I hope these people will come to see the film, if the audience is big enough and there is enough discussion about it across social media then the making of a cult classics will the films legacy. These types of film are incredibly re-watchable and can turn into timless pieces of cinema. This means that anyone in the near future of cinema that comes to the age of the original target audience will understand and connect with the film.


6.
what have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have learnt mostly about blogging utensils and time line creation. The blog we used was quite a simple design but allowed the user to create and use HTML to embed blog posts. This was especially helpful when embedding youtube videos straight onto the blog. I also used photoshop on a few of the construction tasks to cut around the shapes of the figures and to create documents for printing, during this process I used online help videos and photoshop manuals to refine my use of the tools.


7.
looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt from the progression from it to the final product?

I have learnt about lots of different editing types since making the preliminary video that only focused on one technique. In the final product I have used lots of cuts to almost force the viewer into the scene, the cuts are quite harsh as they play with the perception of the picture on the screen by flipping it, reflecting it. I also used flickers in a part of the video to emphasise the mental state of the subject, how changeable it can be. It is very difficult to show mental health or even a characters mental process through video so I used editing to help me out a very large amount. I used layering of slow moving ink through water in the background juxtaposed with the quick cuts on the layer in front. I think this sort of editing shows how a person can be calm at the same time as their mind begin in panic mode, it can also be linked with the changeability of the mind.

Construction / Development 6

I have created a first draft of the piece.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/0EpZomIZ4mE
It must be watched in 720p 60fps to see the whole process and editing correctly.

A lot of things have changed in this draft from the plan and story board.

I began the process with the information that my actor would no longer be able to help me out as they were no longer available. This was quite a blow to production as it had almost solely relied on this actor being available. So with little time left I decided the next best actor was myself and so set about reviewing my story board to incorporate this as a factor. This meant I had to scrap all the work in my post entitled construction 5 as the sequence would not make sense with a different actor. This led me to scrapping the entire first part of the sequence, but still wanting to use some of the work i had done i incorporated some of the paper cut outs into this draft.

I then planned to film the last 2 sequence parts and complete the first draft but bad weather and lack of transport struck so the last part of the sequence had to be reworked into the background that you see in this draft. I decided that what i wanted out of the last part was intricacy and movement so i created these themes on a much smaller scale with food colouring and a tub of water.

the second part of the sequence was changed slightly as whilst filming I saw that the look i wanted wasn't going to come through if i stuck to the plan. I decided to change the props and distances from the camera to create more depth to the draft.