Reflection.

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

As part of our AS media coursework the specification was to create an opening title sequence for a film lasting around 2 minutes long. My film opening ‘Here We Go Again’ is a Drama/Comedy about an ordinary student, living an ordinary life. I researched title sequences and paid attention to the order of which titles conventionally occurred in film openings, and applied this research to the order in which my titles would occur in my film opening. For example I noticed in my research that the director always appeared at the very end of the opening title sequence. My film opening has a quirky realistic style with the use of an average London street and a run down alley, gives and artistic feel to the film opening along with the dream like music similar to the sort of atmospheric music used in ‘500 days of summer’. The music has the same ‘floaty’ sound of 'Sweet Disposition' in the film ‘500 days of summer’ which had an influence on my film opening. Along with the music and the surroundings my film opening became a realistic and artistic piece of film that although filmed in a run down area has a kind of simplistic beauty to it and is showing the simplicity of life in a positive way. As I said this style I think is similarly used in films such ‘500 days of summer’ and also ‘juno’, which share many similarities with my film opening.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My film opening is set in an ordinary greater London town. It does not show the glamorous side to London, for example flaunting iconic shots of central London and its landmarks. My film does not aim to show London as a big exciting place, because it is about real people and set in the real London. I aimed to use my setting a modest backdrop to represent the character in my film. The area looks quite run down showing an area that appears to be very working class, this is enhanced by the bleak colours and the general surroundingsI feel my film opening is supposed to represent ordinary young students who have just moved out of home or are starting university. It is about people of around the age of 18 and insight into some of the issues that may arise in that period of a person’s life. I feel people of that age would be able to relate to my film and make links and comparisons between themselves and the film. However at the same time as this, I chose Matilda to be in my film as I new it would create intrigue as she looks unique and interesting, by doing this I was also trying to represent the ‘misfits’ and minority within the audience I am trying to target. Also I think it gives the film something different to have an unusual main character. my film is also meant to show young people like Matilda in a positive light, I think also through the slow diegetic music a sort of beauty is created by the scenes that are shown, even though they show a built up area rather than picturesque scenery.

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

I used channel 4 for my production company and ‘channel 4 presents’ is the first title that appears in my film opening. I think channel 4 is the sort of media institution that would distribute my film as they supported low budget films in the past that have gone on to find major success, such as ‘This is England’ ‘Slum Dog Millionaire’ and ‘Shaun of the Dead’. I Also chose Film 4/ Channel 4 for my production company because I feel that the quirky realistic style would be suited to the sort of films channel 4 would usually support for example the 2006 film ‘London to Brighton’ which was a low budget film directed by Paul Andrew Williams and as similar features to my film such showing a realistic interpretation of life, and a similar bleakness to that of ‘This is England’. Although my film will be very different, in that my filmed is aimed to show a positive view of working class life and young people and ‘London to Brighton’ is quite a negative film, the films have a very similar style in their rough filming and bleak lighting.

How did you attract/address your audience?

The audience which I aim to attract through my film is a ‘young adult’ audience between the ages of 16 to 25, meaning I would like the film to be awarded a 15 film certificate. Through the opening of my film I attracted and addressed my audience from a number of different angles. One way in which I attracted my audience was through the simplicity of my film opening. My film opening simple shows a girl walking from the shop to her front door. Through only showing this simple action it will grip my audience in that none of the story is given away and there is equilibrium.  If you give away to much of the story, in the film opening then the audience will have no need to watch the film. My film opening gives the audience a small insight and taster into the style of the film and leaves them guessing as to what could happen in it. Another way in which I tried to address my audience was giving them something to relate to. Many people would be able to possibly relate to the setting and any of the mise en scene so the setting and area of the appearance of Matilda, and of course the simplicity of walking to the corner shop as everybody had done at some point in their life.  Another aspect that I think would attract my audience is the camera work. Because there is not a lot going on in the storyline itself, I found that it was definitely important to make sure that both the camera work and the music were interesting. In my film I use a number of shots, such as your standard mid shots and close up, along with the conventional establishing shot of the corner shop as the very first shot of the film. However I also use a number of slightly more interesting shots such as Birds-eye shots and slightly angular shots to keep things interesting. I also kept the angles changing quite frequently to give the film more pace as life as just showing a tracking shot of the character walking down the road would have been quite boring.

What have you learned about technologies from producing this product?

During the course of making my film I used many different pieces of equipment and technology.  Obviously I use d a camera to film and a tripod to stand it on which I found quite easy to use. We were also given the option to use big backlights however I didn’t need them. Once the filming was completed I used final cut express, a professional editing computer programme, to edit and add titles to my film. To edit my film I played around with the speed of clips, and used the razor tool to cut my footage into individual shots and cut out any mistakes. I used final cut express when making my digital storyboard, the point of that exercise was to learn how to add titles to the footage as well as showing evidence of planning. At first I found this difficult but eventually go the hang of it. I had used garage band before but I used it to compose my music. From doing this I gained experience of using the programme and can now use it more confidently than before. I also had a blog that I had to update as I made progression through the task so we had evidence of planning when our task was complete.

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

From looking back at my task one of the man things I have learnt is exactly how much work goes into the making of a film opening, from The filming to the editing, adding the titles and the music. Before doing this task I don’t think I was aware of just how much actually goes into making a film. I think this task has help to see this because I have done it all myself so, I went through each step of creating the film myself and saw how much went into it. I have also learnt how to use many different Technologies, for example up until this point I had not done any filming completely by myself I had always been in a pair or a group so, filming completely by my self was a challenge and I had to learn how to use the camera by myself. I also learned how to use final cut express, which I had not used before and is a professional editing programme used for many TV programmes and was quite complicated to start with. I have also learned a lot about the conventions and necessities of film openings for example the order of titles, with the director always appearing at the end of the titles. And I have learnt a lot about channel 4  and film 4 as a production company and about the types of films they produce and