Media Evaluation

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

Our film opening challenges many different aspects of media products. It firstly challenges societies. We also challenged the genre comedy. We used light hearted comedy which most of today’s youth would relate to more so than someone from the older generation. Our aspect of comedy is when the two characters rob the convenience store in white Arabic dresses, also when Jamie’s mum finds the boys lads mag. We hope the audience finds the humorous side to this segment of our film opening as it is a known stereotype for teenage boy to hide lads mag’s from their parents/ or to have them at their parents discretion.  We hope that the comedy comes through as comedy, as there are some scenes, which could be seen to be offensive to certain ethnic groups (such as the shop robbery). As it shows two teenage boys attempting to fit in with the gangster world of today (which is why they’re wearing suits), we hope the audience finds the humorous side to this rather than seeing it to be just a pathetic attempt of recreating gangsters. When the two characters are wearing suits, this fits in with our genre as it’s a crime drama. When they move on to rob the corner shop, whilst wearing Arabian dress, this is when we challenge our audiences sense of humour as we hope to create an immature/irresponsible funny side to this scene, whilst partially remaining serious when robbing the shop in an attempt to still appear as gangsters. We hope the smoking scene doesn’t come over as humorous as it is supposed to show the audience that stereotypical teenage boys will do whatever to find in with their mates. Our film doesn’t show that it complies with Propps character type theory initially, but it shows signs that one of the two characters would be the hero and the other would be the helper, the one who helps the hero restore and equilibrium. Jared, is the character who leaves the shop first in the robbery scene and is the one to introduce Jamie (the second character) into smoking. This shows he’s got a leading figure in him which hints to the audience he would be the hero, whilst Jamie is the helper in whatever mission/activity they later pursue in the film.

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

Our product represents teenagers, to be typically rebellious and to disobey parents or guardians. We show the two main characters to be rebellious by them going out of their way to go against what their parents would’ve told them; don’t do drugs, rob shops and so on. These two acts in particular shows the characters being rebellious at their best. Our specific characters are shown to go to incredible lengths, just to prove to friends and family that they‘re the next level of gangsters. This is representing the youth of today to be typically immature and irresponsible. It show’s some of today’s teenagers or people of the youth; wanting to be someone or something they’re not. For example we see the two characters in suits and then later on we see a scene of 100 dollar bills flying over our characters giving them the view that they are ‘Ballers’ (a slang term for people of incredible wealth). We can see these are fake bills and that this links into them wanting and aspiring to be things they’re not much like many youths of today. The media product is also attempting to portray the view of some social groups of today’s teenagers aspiring to be ‘Real Gangsters’. Jamie’s mum who catches the boys with their lad’s mag shows the typical parental discipline move and shouts at the boys expecting them to know better. This is showing the audience that she has the typical parental traits that an older person would say. Sanjeev (the shop owner) shows traits of a typical shop owner as the boys rob his shop as he runs out shouting “I know your mum” in hope to threaten and scare the two characters. Our media product hopes to play on this common stereotype, by the two characters resorting to crimes such as robbing shops, doing drugs and having money lavishly poured on them. Having dollar bills poured on the two characters is purely a fantasy that these characters have.

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

A low budget film institute would be the best to distribute it as there isn’t any high end expensive equipment or green screens so it wouldn’t be a relatively expensive film to produce. Ealing studios would be ideal to produce our film as it has produced a very successful comedy film very similar to ours, Shawn of The Dead. As it is a British Film institute/studio, I would be a good one as it would be able to relate to our regional identic, British humour better than an American film studio would, which means Ealing studios could help enhance it as they have been making films for over 100 years (established in 1902). I wouldn’t go with a bigger film company because I don’t think our film is set to be the next massive blockbuster. Also because I think our film will not have a huge audience who will thoroughly enjoy it due to some of the aspects of our film such as drugs, lad’s mag’s and robbing shops.

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

The ideal audience for my media product would be teenagers from 16 up, to about people age 25. Our film would appeal to this age group because it is slightly on the immature side, this means that people over 25 are more likely to dislike it and not find it entertaining and quickly lose interest. The film isn't aimed at any particular gender; however I assume it would appeal more to the male audience over the female audience. This is because males are socially seen to be more immature than females therefore they would be more likely to enjoy it more than females, also shop robbery’s, smoking weed and various other things are known to entertain males more so than females. This would likely to be our audience throughout the whole film because the opening of the film are small tasters as to what is to come later on in the film on a much larger scale. The social class whom are film would appeal most to be C1 and C2; this is because they are the categories who would be able to relate most to the film. This is mainly due to the fact, classes A and B will unlikely find humour in watching teens rob a corner shop in a dish dash, common assumptions are that they’d prefer to watch high end expensive blockbuster films. Our media product may not be entirely appealing to some religious/ethnic groups, because of the Arabian dress scene, whilst robbing a convenient store. This scene isn’t like that to be racially offensive, it was aimed to be seen that two oblivious teenagers using a disguise they thought kept them undercover whilst on the mission.

                                                                                                                                            

5.       How did you attract/address your audience?

With my media product, we slowly showed the audience who the characters were and then we left some guess work, for them to figure out what they’re doing and why they’re dressed in suits. I felt this was a good way to ease the audience into the story without throwing them into it blind. The way in which I've presented this to the audience shows them briefly who the characters are and what they intend to do. I hope this entices the viewer into the media product and makes them want to see the rest of the film. Our audience is aimed at people aged 15-28, so teenagers to young adults so we have use language that they’d recognise and use in their daily lives. Our genre is crime/comedy so we've showed the audience aspects of comedy through the use of music, costume and language in which our characters have used.

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

I have learnt to use video cameras and the best lighting conditions to use to get the best video quality. With the video camera I've learnt the best ways to focus and get the best shots from it with the help of a tripod which has a specific panning cog in the centre which makes panning in a shot much smoother and professional looking.   If the lighting is unsuitable such as a dark environment, for example in Jamie’s mum’s living room in one of the initial scenes (when they got caught with their magazine), this room was too dark so I've invested in a filming light which makes dark scenes better and much clearer when produced in its final product. The editing software we've used is something which I've learnt and has made our film opening look much more professional. The software which I used (provided by the school) was cyber link power director, which I have developed my skills since I started making our media product, I have learnt how to cut down videos and layer music over video clips as well as layering text on top of video clips to present actors names. As well as that I've learnt to use different transition effects to give a more professional look when going from different shots. I've also learnt how to dub video with recording dialogue sound. We used an external microphone (one which wasn't the built in one on the camera) to record our dialogue which made the sound quality much better and makes it sound cleaner for the scenes which contained dialogue. The scenes which include dubbing are the ones in which the two characters are smoking, the one in Jamie’s living room and when his mum is shouting at the two characters. We have also made use of a tripod during the production of our media product. This has enabled us to create our still shots steady and very professional throughout. As the tripod we have has a special panning cog this has allowed us to create smooth professional looking panning shots.

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

I feel from our preliminary, I've developed many aspects of our media product significantly especially the camera and overall filming of our film opening. I have used a much wider variety of camera shots and angles when filming, to either make the story flow smoother, or to make characters feel more powerful than others. These examples can be found when the characters are putting on their shoes, blazers, and when they walk out the door there is a very low angle shot there as the characters step outside of the front door. You can also see as the characters walk across the road to the park, the audience is presented with an establishing shot. Our overall mise en scene has improved by just using a much better and higher quality of costumes for the characters and improved filming locations. In my preliminary we simply used one costume. In this media product we have used mainly two costumes but thy suit the look and feel of the film very well. We’ve used an Arabic dress (dishdash) when the characters rob the shop to hide their identity and also to create a funny side to the characters robbing the shop. Then the suits are mainly used to make the characters feel as though they are top level gangsters, but in reality their attempt is aimed to look immature and amusing.  I have also gone away and invested in higher quality camera and a tripod to ensure all still shots are steady and professional looking. I have also improved my editing skills immensely. I feel that my final media product is of a very high quality of editing, this is mainly due to trial and error. I have also audio dubbed all dialogue used in my media product which, gives a much clearer sound with minimal background noise.