Introduction
The opening sequence that my group performed, edited and filmed was called ‘One final note’, we didn’t decide on a name until we had finished the filming; once that stage was complete we decided from what we had filmed that this is an appropriate name. My group contained myself, Chris and Taran, we decided on working in a trio so that we could each have our designated areas of work however we would all work as a team and help each other when needed. Filming was done by Chris, Acting by me and editing by Taran.
Q 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
In my own opinion I would say that the genre for the sequence would be a ‘teen’ & ‘bullying’. As a group our first decision was for the film to be about a gritty victim of bullying, we wanted to do this as we felt that there was a niche in the film market and not many other films are done in such a way. It is obvious to the audience that the girl is very stressed and can not cope with it much longer, she gets bullied at college and her family do not seem to take any consideration towards her feelings. We used the usual camera shots and angles such as a close up, medium shot this was usually used on the final note and also when the actress was walking down the corridor, when she was being bullied we used a medium shot mostly this was so that you could understand what kind of bullying it was, at 1 point we even canted the angle. Although everything that we showed was what you would expect in a bullying sequence we decided not to add a twist to it as it might make it a little bit too cheesy, but I thought that we made it look very dramatic, I feel that with the build up to this point allows the audience to understand the concept of our sequence. From our feedback that we received it showed that our choice to stick to a basic bullying theme: “very unique in how it ends, easy to understand and not cheesy”.
Q 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?
From an audiences point of view it is easy to see that there are two main characters in this film with two supporting roles, this is shown by the bully and the bully victim, then the supporting roles played by the bullies friends. The social groups that our group have presented are:
* Bully
* Bullies friends
* Bully victim / Unsociable girl
You can see that the victim is also very insecure in the way that she looks behind her often and clutches hold of her belongings tightly, furthermore the victim is usually walking alone through corridors, she is also portrayed as weak and vulnerable. The bully shows his dominance by looking down at people and also staying in groups of friend; the bully is rough looking and always has a moody look on his face, this fits in with a media stereotype that most bullies are rough and don’t treat people with respect. So that the scenes do not complicate they are all shot in similar places, this allows the audience to get an understanding of the characters.
Q 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I think that the insinuations given off from our film are that not everybody is safe in college. If any film production company were to take on our project would be Paramount motion pictures – MTV Films; the reason why I think that this would be suitable for our film is because MTV is directed at teenagers and with this film they will be able to show what can go on in college, also as it is a short movie it could be showed after a programme. It could also became a really big film as MTV is a big business with lots of viewers all around the globe this could then promote the film further.
Q 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?
If I had to narrow the into a certain character audience I would choose bully victims although our film could also be aimed at non bully victims. I would say that its main audience would be teenagers but then also parents on students at school or college. As it is a bullying film I would say that it is a mixed gendered audience however I feel that the female audience will understand the message of the film clearer. For a stereotypical bullying film people may suggest that you have to be of a foreign background or ethnicity or maybe even a poor child, however we challenged that stereotype by having a regular middle class English student. We decided on a bullying audience as there are not many films out which help promote the awareness of bullying to the parents of their children; we saw that there was a niche in the industry, I feel that we could also get many sponsors and financial backing as it is showing the audience what could happen in college and that your not always safe.
Q 5: How did you attract/ address your audience?
The start of our film allows the audience to gain an interest, instantly you are drawn in and you want to know why the victim looks so insecure even though she is walking through college corridors. Our video is shown from past and present, this is shown by video effects; when the video is in colour the tense is present when in black and white it’s in the past. All of the present tense is set in the victims house where as the past tense is set in college. The enigmas allow the audience to wonder what will happen to the victim, and what will happen to the bully; this allows people to watch until the end of the film. The binary opposites are clear to all of the audience as there is a clear opposite between the bully and the victim, this then creates tension between the characters. Our film creates a message to the parents of students at college/school that your children are not always safe.
Q 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Mostly we used a mixture of YouTube and IMDB.com. As I did most of the acting I didn’t learn much about the editing side of the film production, I assisted in filming but again didn’t learn much. The first time that we filmed the victim writing ‘the final note’ we did not have the correct camera angle so we reproduced it at a better standard.
Q 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
In our preliminary task I’d say that we performed alright but we could have done better. Our film uses many more camera angles which makes it more natural to the genre, music providing tension for the audience and transitions to swap from past and present which resulted in it being more professional.
Conclusion
In conclusion I think that our genre has been achieved as there was a niche in the market and I think we were successful and it would have been filled, also it is suitable for the target audience. This has been achieved through the mise en scene, camera angles, and editing as we have fulfilled our targets. The past and present clips are very useful to our film as it gives an understanding; this is because it is very forceful and the audience can see the difference.
