http://prezi.com/st5nb6fvqbpp/evaluation-advancement-in-media-skill/
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for our media project would most likely be teens to young adults (more male than female), not to dissimilar from that of Kidulthood, Adulthood and Shank and also that of TV series such as Skins and Misfits. However the film would represent a more middle class life style and therefore particularly appeal more to that social bracket than the previously mentioned films do, this is due to the protagonist being middle class unlike Kidulthood where the protagonist is working class. For our secondary audience it would be the 20-30 brackets and this is because of the use of cinematography therefore creating an appeal similar to that of this is England as 12 hours will have a strong narrative however this wont over power the technical skills and features used making the narrative not the only attractive thing towards audiences.
How did you attract/ address this audience?
The audience should be attracted by the narrative because the target audience will be able to relate to the situations within the film, For instance having to choose between 2 girls and the consequences of each. Narrative like this relates to the target audience and therefore they will be intrigued to see how the situation happens and how it is corrected.
The soundtrack of 12 hours should also appeal to the target audience because of its contemporary nature. This is because the music is in the popular chart and the soundtrack is not dissimilar from that of groups such as CHASE & STATUS. In turn this should appeal to the target audience because this too allows the viewers to relate to the media product.
The range of characters in 12 hours means that different sub sections of the target audience can more closely relate to the characters.
In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
There are also conventions such as text that make it clear to be an opening. The credits and titles make it apparent to the viewer that the film is beginning however this is contrasted by the fact the audience see the end of the film first this convention is also seen in film such as Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire. This gives a fast paced and action packed beginning. This should draw in the audience and make them want to carry on watching (the convention of an opening in itself is to raise an enigma code and hook the audience). They want to discover why this event happened rather than in some films where the finally is not why this happened but what happens in itself. I believe in this sense 12 hours challenges some conventions as it may confuse or intentional disorientate the audience (adding to the enigma code of the opening) because it furthers the point for the fight needing an explanation. For example the darkness is used to not entirely give the audience the complete picture; this is useful in keeping the audience engaged because there is a sense of mystery (once more accentuating the enigma code) in turn creating atmosphere and tension. Therefore although it keeps some conventions in of an opening it also challenges others because of the use of setting, music and editing of the night sequence at the very beginning.
12 hours is clearly a film opening, I believe it is clearly an opening due to the fact our target audience would easily recognise it was a film opening. I Think this because of the conventions used for our opening such as the introduction to both protagonist and antagonist for example within the first few shots we meet a character whom is being followed by another, these turn out to be none of other, in turn assuming he is the focus of the film, than the protagonist (Joshua) and the antagonist (Seamus). The role of each character is confusing until near the end of the night sequence, due to lack of dialogue, because we are un sure of the reasoning behind the actions of both characters however once the night sequence comes to an end it is apparent whom is going to be the ‘good guy’ and whom will become the ‘baddy’ because he is central and at the point of violence the use of POV allowing the audience to empathise. The morning scene is essential to the protagonist’s introduction is represents his characters, as conventional openings do, and in turn his personality is represented through mise-en-scene and shots giving the audience their needed introduction to him. The introduction to each character is not particularly unusual and it keeps to conventions however the night scene was intended to make the audience question who acted as who in the films narrative in turn making them question their assumptions and in a sense morals. I think this is done successfully done through the costumes and narrative because the one we assume is the antagonist shouts ‘Touch my sister again’, this should make the audience believe that the protagonist wronged his family in some sense however we over look this due to the costume of him being well kept and middle class (unlike that of the antagonist).
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I believe that an institution such as Film Four may help to distribute my media product. I think this because of previous media products that they have helped to distribute. For example they have distributed such coming of age films such as This Is England, Now Where Boy and Hallam Foe. All these films focus on a young male attempting to find his path and all with previously unknown actors and producers. Another reason is those films were also relatively low budget with little big names giving funding. It’s this independent and up and coming reason I believe an institution such as Film Four would distribute my media product. The low budget factor of the film may also appeal to more b-rated and art house distribution companies however this doesn’t particularly relate to the target market and looking at it from a business point of view this would also run the risk of making it a cult movie in the small niche market of art house teens. On the other hand this wouldn’t be so much of an issue if the marketing of the film was strong and advertising campaigns focused the web in turn creating a viral marketing aspect similar or that previously used by Shank and TV Drama Misfits.
Our film when distributed should be looked at in this sense-
Young person’s drama (marketed similarly to Adulthood and Misfits).
Cert. 15 due to these guidelines:
‘Frequent use of strong language (such as ‘fuck’). Stronger terms (such as ‘cunt’) will only be acceptable where justified by context.
‘Sexual activity may be portrayed but without strong detail.’
‘Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole should not promote drug misuse.’
‘Violence may be strong but may not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury.’
By young people with young cast and crew.
These factors should be looked upon when distributing the film.
(These guidelines are taken from ‘The Observer Book Of Film’ published in 2007.)
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
When constructing my media product I learnt to successfully use Panasonic DVX100B with a Leica Dicomar lens and multi-directional Sennheiser Microphone. On the post production side I learnt to use movie cuts, transitions, how to insert captions & text and layer sounds.
In pre-productions I and my group each successfully used the camera and mica to get good quality shots and diegetic sound. This in turn led to the use post production editing software. The software used was movie and me and my group all learnt to use cuts, fades and ‘Ken Burns’ as well as post production sound such as soundtracks and sound enhancement.
Looking back at your prelim any task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
SOUND- Unlike in our pre-lima wave had a wider range of soundtrack choices and therefore the final soundtrack adds to the atmosphere creating a much more well rounded final product. Numerous meetings and discussions took place in order for us to get a final soundtrack that fits perfectly with both narrative and mise-en-scene allowing connotations of both keep in tune with the codes used to identify the characters, and their personality. For example in our opening the main characters are 2 fold as is the night/day and finally the soundtracks. This was done intentionally to show how Seamus is powerful at night (in the dark and undercover) and Joshua powerful at day (in the light and popular).
ATTENTION TO DETAIL- In our final product we had much more time to make each shot better with specific reasoning behind it. This has lead to each shot having an individual purpose witch wasn’t the case with our prelim. The various shot types have led to a more ‘efficient’ final product that is precise in what is has to achieve. Also within in each shot most things are there for a reason and help to encode each character, location and costume. For Example Joshua’s costume being the same through out and showing his class.
LOCATIONS- Use different locations in order to create different atmosphere for various purposes. For instances each location was specific chosen so that it was camera accessible had enough light and most importantly fitted the brief. For example in the attack scene it happens under a lamppost which allows there to be enough light for the audience to see the events taking place yet also fit in with the brief of a urban setting. For example the dark night time in a poorly lit urban alley which typical space for mugging or violence.
MISE-EN-SCENE- In our prelim we didn’t have anything that represented the characters or maybe show us a little about them however in our final piece we have manage to show aspects of Joshua’s personality by the use of objects not dialogue or other sound. E.g. Joshua’s bedside with the deliberately placed beer glass, magazines and Good Clean Tackle Boxer shorts. The mise-en-scene also contributes to the realism of the film as they are everyday things that are no out of the ordinary for a teenage boy to have.
PLANNING- In our prelim we didn’t know what we were doing when and played a lot of it by ear with little idea of what we were setting out to achieve however in our final product we knew what we were doing when leading to less conflict of ideas and a more smoothly running pre & post production experience. This was furthered by the use of storyboarding and conscious gathering of props.
CODES- In our final product I started to understand the importance of encoding and decoding. For instance in the prelim the antagonist could have been John Smith however to encode the violent, irrational and working class Seamus the group descried to make a stereotypical lower class Irish male. Seeing as both the Irish and lower-class’ sometimes carry connotations of violence’s his antagonist character should be decoded that way.
How does your media project represent particular social groups?
Age: Age is represented quite stereotypically throughout my media project ’12 Hours’, For instance in the night sequence young people are represented as violent and quite thuggish this is done by the use of dialogue of Seamus. He comes across as very angry and violent as is done by other modern mediums, for example newspapers with such headlines of ‘The Youth of Today’ and the glorification of ASBO’s. The soundtracks juxtapose as the violence almost aggressive non diegetic sound in the night sequence and the calm ordinariness of the day sequence. Both songs being in the popular charts gives a very strong representation of the specific age and 2 social groups, that of chavs (night sequence) and that of indie (day sequence) of the main characters within the films.
Class: Class is represented in the opening by 2 characters. These two charters are the same age and genders however differ in class. This is mainly encoded by the costumes used, For instance Joshua is in a polo-shirt, jacket and wingtip shoes witch is widely considered as middle class due to the cost of such clothes. To contrast Seamus (Antagonist) is wearing Nike, a brand that is often worn by that of lower income, as well as wearing his trousers lower with his hood up. Finally the narrative represents the 2 different classes, for instance Seamus are shown being violent towards Joshua. This is something more often than not being shown by lower class people, it would break convention if a group of well spoken, posh dressed private schooled boys attacked a group of working class boys in trackies and flat peaked caps.
Gender: Most importantly to out opening a stereotypical male is represented. This is achieved by the mise-en-scene of Joshua’s room that has ‘Lads Mags’ on the floor, Beer classes around the room and a girl in his bed. This is essential to representing his character because these objects speak for them self’s about him. For instance the pint glass (rather than a champagne glass) shows he drinks larger, something often done by men in pubs or at bars. The woman in this scene is shown an s not particularly important and this is done by the way the camera never focus’ on her or follows her as it does with the male ones.
Sexuality: Mise-en-scene is the biggest contributor to the representation of heterosexuality in the opening scene. Joshua’s sexuality is predominantly represented by 3 things. On Joshua’s floor he has three lads’ mags this is the first shot of the day sequence and suggests Joshua is sexual active. This is turn is reinforced by the ‘Good Clean Tackle underwear that is given away with Chlamydia tests this shows Joshua sleeps around a bit and in turn foreshadows the plot of later on in the film. Finally Joshua’s sexuality is shown by the girl in his bed this shows he certainly is sexually active and the reason there are no close ups of this girl suggest she is unimportant to our protagonist and suggests she is just another number to him.
Ethnicity: The ethnicity of the young working class Irish teen is stereotypical, as is Joshua’s representation. Both seem to keep to codes and conventions of similar representation in other British Drama Films. For example Seamus is quite similar to that of Mickey O’Neil in Snatch (Seamus purposely knocks Joshua out in one hit as Mickey O’Neil does in Snatch adding intertexuality to the opening), these violent and temperamental actions are in keeping with the stereotypical Irish code. On the other hand we have Joshua who is in keeping with the British code by wearing a Harrington jacket and polo shirt.
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