Question 7 Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product ?

Final Product Improvements:
On our final product we managed to correct our mistakes and make many improvements


This was our new attempt at pulling focus, we wanted to pull focus as the camera went on to Kirsty to help establish her character.  With a lot of practice shots and research, our team and especially our camera were able to pull of the effect we wanted.

We had a phone close-up very similar to the shot in our preliminary task and it was much better, there was minimal shaking of the camera and the sound made from the phone can easily be heard. This was due to use visiting our location of recording numerous times before going there for our actual filming.



This shot had a great use of our surroundings as it shows two sides. The pole between Ali and my character gives a representation of a boundary between the two characters as if they are from two completely different sides of the spectrum, this can give an audience an idea of how the film would progress had it been a whole film

Question 6 What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product ?

When creating our media film, we used a lot of different sorts of technologies to help us the effects and shots we wanted, this ranged from simply using keep vid to get videos from youtube to learning how to pull focus with a camera I had never used before. Our use of macs came in handy as it gave us faster and better access to websites such as:

 



Youtube, which allowed us to put our videos up on their website and access from anywhere. It also allowed us to share and embed our videos onto our blog. I was very used to Youtube before we were told to start using it to it was not very challenging to have to use it

Go Animate, This unique site allowed me to create a conversation animation, It was a new way of speaking about my work so I had to get used to it by trying it out with different templates, as the characters can not pronounce all the words I may need them to say, I had to test which words did and did not work

 

 Prezi, is a site that I was referred to by a member of my group, at first I was very confused about Prezi as I thought it was simply powerpoint but as I used it more I began to realize how different it actually is from powerpoint, it gave some of work the individuality it needed

Wordl, I had used wordl not many times, once being at the beginning of our project and then once again at the end, Wordl's strange layout of words never really appealed to me until later in the project when I realised it does further establish the conventions of the film you are trying to base your Wordl on.

Soundcloud, this website allowed us to get loads of different types of songs and backing tracks, we had been using sound cloud since before our project had started so we were all rather experienced with it, this meant looking for our backing track for our film in a group of 4 was rather simple.





When using technology such as camera's, we came to realise that we did not like just any camera, but there were only a specific type of camera that us but especially our camera liked, and this was a camera that could really pull focus.


We used devices such as the monopod and tripod for different duties:










We used the monopod for steady or panning shots in area's where the tripod was less efficient which was usually in an area it could not fit at all no matter how much alteration to its height or width.










However we used a tripod for most of the filming, it allowed the most steady shots as the tripod rests on the floor however a monopod had to be held in our cameraman's hand making the shots a lot more unsteady.





Our use of different websites and technology truly helped us to create the final project that we did and I am very grateful to the inventors and creators.

 

Question 5 How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted our audience in many ways. We had a female and a male main character to attract to balance out the audience, the male with a very harsh street life narrative attracting mainly males, and a very cute and lovey dovey narrative between the two characters attracting mainly to the female audience.

We created a "hermeneutic" code in the opening, this makes the  audience want more, by leaving unanswered questions to do with the third character Ali associates with, as well as the background between the two main characters it creates questions such as, will he get in the way? Creating this foreshadowing both leaves the audience wanting more, this engages the audience in the movie by making them think for themselves to piece together the puzzle, making the audience movie relationship stronger and consequently making the audience enjoy our short film more. A fourth character is shown for a very small amount of time "dealing" with Ali which only gives the audience a short amount of time to put things together in their head.

We also used a semic code in the cultural stereotype of the two characters (Ali's/Ceaser's generic clothing and slang; Kirsty's/Flo's generic clothing and setting) the typical stereotype would allow the audience to create assumptions about the characters and build up their own representations, which would then be challenged as the movie progressed, the first challenge being when Ali is seen going through Kirsty's pictures on his phone. Using these conventions to create a seme means that we could effectively 'show, not tell' the audience about the characters.

 

 

 

Our use of backing track further helped establish to our audience what kind of characters Ali and Kirsty were, the typical hip hop music establishes Ali's rough lifestyle and Kirsty stepping into it. Music is quite popular among teenagers so this choice of backing track seemed highly appropriate as well.

Our use of props relating to our characters and their background stories enhances the stories of the characters and also enhances the conventions and codes of the stereotypes that are our film is based around. we had props such as:

Drugs (Fake)

Chain (accessories)

Headphones

 Cereal

Nike bag

etc.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


The male characters props enhance his character stereotype as an unruly youth. The drugs show a bad side to him and immediately associate him with the 'street/gangs' culture. This gives audience their chance to put a "label" on him/generalise him.
The female characters props represents her as a very put together youth, the phone and headphones being expensive commodities and the breakfast cereal showing that she has time and is relaxed. This gives the audience a representation of her being relaxed with a slightly well off family. The headphones also enhance the music side of the movie.

The location of our film is a school which is easily connectable to our target audience (15 and over) as most of our audience will be currently going through school or have left relatively recently.
 

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

Our movie is aimed at mainly over 15's. It would attract both gender's as it had a bit of romance for females, a bit of gang life for males.The difference in background also attracts audience as both characters have their own background and backstory told from their point of view as they are from such different social class spectrums.
It will mainly relate to youths who can relate near the age of the characters as the may have seen or experienced a similar lifestyle to that of some of the characters in our film.
It will attract mainly youths, as they can relate to the story and the characters. Lower/under class and middle class youths will both be attracted as there is a story from both sides of that class spectrum.

There is a truth to the story and the setting and context that will attract an audience from the same context. The sub-genres of gangs, music and love will attract other audiences, as those are 3 sub-genres that can attract 3 very different kind of audiences, so the spectrum is large
The music and love side, coupled with the story of the middle classed girl will attract more of a female audience, as the majority of females have been known to enjoy the more compassionate side of a story. It is likely to also attract couples.
The gang life and violence side of the story will attract more of a group of mates audience who can either relate to story or maybe even want a life similar to it. some audiences like to dream

Typical Audience:
Profile:

Name: Tony Mitchell
Age: 16
Nationality: British (London)
Occupation: Full-time student, studying Computing and hoping to one day work in game design
Hobbies: Loves playing video games, hanging out with his mates and listening to music
Media Consumption: a user of many different technology and websites such as facebook and twitter.

Tony would be someone likely to be in our audience, the typical video gamer would usually find gang lifestyle quite funny or interesting due to all the games he may have played based around it, his love of music would also probably intrigue him with our film, his age is just about over the typical age of audience expected.
Name: Robin Silva
Age: 15
Nationality: British (London)
Occupation: Full-time student, studying Psychology and Sociology
Hobbies: Sleepovers with friends, reading, watching TV
Media Consumption: Never really uses Facebook or any other sort of social website

Even though robin is interested in things such as the human mind and the way they interact with others, her hobbies do not really put her across as the sort of girl who would enjoy a romantic youth culture film. As she is only just on the boundary of age for our audience, she still might not be at a stage where she finds these kind of films interesting.

 

As our film is slightly based around the Kidulthood and Adulthood franchise it would be to no surprise if it was rated:

 

 

Question 3 What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why ?

WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY?

The following institutions have distributed the most commonly known youth culture films.

FILM 4 => Attack the Block
UK FILM COUNCIL => Adulthood
BBC FLMS => Bullet boy

I believe UK Film Council are most like to distribute our film as our film is more about youth culture like Adulthood than family troubles like bullet boy or an alien invasion like attack the block.UK Film council has made movies plots that usually focus around life, our film has that sort of vibe so I believe UK Film council would be an ideal choice. Our movie tells the story of a youth who is uncertain of where he falls in the world wanting to either stay in the gang life for his anonymous friend or change for the girl that is his love interest, this would be challenging the stereotype and creating an interesting moral to the story- don't judge this character by his facade which was created when he is first seen buying drugs.

I think our movie would fit in well with the other youth culture films made my UK Film Council, which is why i think UK Film Council is the most likely of the three UK Film conglomerates to distribute our movie.

Some of our researched movies from our Research and Planning blog have been distributed by UK Film council, Adulthood and Kidulthood. These films have the same genre as ours and have a similar plot in some ways, someone trying to change, the basic characters are the same a young character in the dangerous street culture.

Question 2 How does your media product represent particular social groups ?

This shows the typical stereotype of youth of which we assigned to our actors.

In our movie we wanted to present the male character as happen two sides to him.

 

We wanted the stereotypical (for his clothing, slang and actions) side to him, being the 'street/gangs' side. This was represented by:

• His clothing: He wore tracksuit, swinging headphones and a chain to represent his affliction to the gang/street- based side of youth culture. 
• His slang in his dialogue parts also demonstrated his similarities to characters in other youth culture films such as Adulthood.

We did however add a larger twist, much different from either Kidulthood or Adulthood and that's our main characters secret hobby, music. In adulthood the main character is shown to have a loving side so we went one step further.

 

Similar to Adulthood, our main character wants to get away from the street life that he is currently a part of, we made this apparent in a number of ways

The bar between the two supposed friends shows separation, Ali on the side close to the school shows him wanting to break away, get an education and get his life on the right track however with the other character who is seated on the steps looking out, away from the school, you get a sense of rebellion of which our main character Ali no longer wants a part of.

 

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

Our opening sequence is based around youth culture, typical stereotypes, it develops and challenges conventions such as:

Films that are opening sequence was inspired by such as adulthood and kidulthood focus around youth culture and crime. In their opening shots they show the kind of life the main characters live. We also attempted this as out first shot is our character picking up drugs from an anonymous character.

 ADULTHOOD:
The opening sequence of adulthood features people in a club dealing with drugs. developing conventions such as : Teenagers, Crime, Drugs,

 KIDULTHOOD:
The opening sequence of kidulthood features teenagers at school including the main antagonist and a few of his friends causing trouble for a few girls leading to one of them getting beaten up. developing conventions such as: Gangs, Streets

SYNC (Our film):
The opening sequence of our film features our main male character picking up drugs from an anonymous dealer and the proceeding over to his supposed friend or associate developing conventions such as: Drugs, Streets

 

There are many conventions located in youth culture films as you can see in this wordl created. Crrime, drugs and gangs are usually the three conventions a typical youth culture film needs at least one of.

We challenged and developed many conventions such as the typical stereotype of race, our main character located in the street life is not black as statistics would expect however at least one of his gang associates is as we wanted our film to at least somewhat be statistically accurate.

Statistics of race crimes are below:

As you can see, the difference is remarkable between black youths and white and Asians, the total black youths is more than white and Asian added together and doubled, so to not make at least one of gang lifestyle characters not black would be somewhat strange therefore developing the convention

Timetable for Evaluation video response

Questions for the Audience

These are the questions for our audience feedback for our opening sequence:

1. Does our film portray the working class background of the male character successfully in the opening two minutes (posture, clothing, dialogue, other signifiers)?
2. Does our film portray the middle class background of the female character successfully in the opening two minutes (posture, clothing, dialogue, other signifiers)?
3. Is the musical background of the character's displayed successfully?
4. Does the non-diagetic music reinforce the working class and youth cultural background of the male character in the first minute?
5. How appealing is the quality of the filming, editing, sound, acting?
6. Was the lifestyle of the characters portrayed successfully?
7. Were the backgrounds of the characters portrayed to be different?