Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

As a group we settled on Fantasy for the Genre of our main-task. The main conventions of Fantasy films are medieval or wild locations used (.e.g. forests or castles) mythical creatures (.e.g. elves or fairies), the entrance into an alternative world (.e.g. Harry Potter into the wizarding world) and the characters used. Considering Propp's archetypes, the sort of characters in Fantasy are very clichéd – there is always a guide, a villain, a hero and a helper/ donor. In Fantasy films the characters always find themselves on some sort of mission/ having to complete a task where a whole civilization depends on them. Films that influenced the making of the main-task within my group were Pans Labyrinth. Arguably, it is easy to say we took some influence from Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. We watched the beginning of a few Fantasy films; Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Lord of the Rings: The two Towers and Pirates of the Caribbean: At world's end, as a group we noticed that all the Fantasy world's in these films - though engaging in wars, or full of trouble – were rather glamorous. The only film that seemed to oppose this trend was Pans Labyrinth where everything was a lot more gritty and so we planned to make our film a lot less glamorous. However, we found further inspiration in The imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus for our set, rather than filming in a real Forest we made our own setting for a surreal affect, the surreal elements of our forest – being made by hand – completely eliminates the possibility of realism but also makes for interesting viewing and allows more development on the conventions of the Fantasy genre (.e.g. the Forest landscape). Unintentionally, in our film we had the transition from the 'real world' to the fantasy world in a wardrobe – like in Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – however our main character did not walk through a wardrobe but fell asleep in one, this is a development of the idea of an entrance in another world, giving it a unique turn.
Our film sticks to the conventions of the genre we chose due to the location we used (A self-made forest), the characters (A helper/ guide, a 'princess' and a 'villain') and the entrance to an alternative world. We felt it was best to stick to these conventions of Fantasy because these would help an audience identify which genre of film we chose to film. Whilst sticking to some conventions, our film also deviates from them: due to editing restrictions we had no mythical creatures, our fantasy setting was not glamorous (Other than Pans Labyrinth our film – in our research – has been the only one to have a gritty setting). I think the most daring deviation in our film is the enigma, unlike most Fantasy films ours would not include a happy ending, our main character would not have completed her journey and she would not have triumphed over evil (a clichéd event in most films) but she would have been killed by the villain.

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product deals with particularly sensitive situations within the home (.e.g. non – sexual child abuse) and although there are portrayals of characters – using Propp's archetypes – such as the 'helper', there are representations of social groups, too. The strongest and unchanging representation of a certain social group is the portrayal of Step Fathers, rather than an evil step mother (as shown in films for younger children) there is a cruel step father. My media product does not show males in a particularly appealing light, the step father (Robin) is a drunk and is abusive, this representation of step fathers – and more specifically – males, is not pleasant and immediately sets the audience up to dislike Robin and support the main character (Sam). The fact that Robin is inhumane, insensitive and lacks morals make him the typical type of Villain that is typical of any sort of film. It was important to maintain a dislike for Robin through out the main task because without it, the relationship between the abusive step father and the abused step daughter would have faltered and the sympathy would not have solely belong to Sam, which would then have distorted the whole point of the product (Without a bad relationship one event would not have triggered the other and the text would have been useless) . Robin remains true to the negative portrayal of males through out the extract, he doesn't show any kindness towards Sam and remains the Villain through out the text.
Representations of teenagers are dealt with differently compared to the mainstream stereotype of trouble making teens – again, the film is very specific in which gender of teen it deals in. Female teenager's are shown to be curious, vulnerable victims but there is some things that parallel with the mainstream representations, Sam – like any teen – can be quite rude and get annoyed easily (as shown in her conversation with the 'Hung – Helper' ). Sam's character in the sense of Propp's archetypes is typical - she is the 'princess' – but certain characteristics make Sam a lot more developed and realistic: teenagers can relate to the way Sam acts in certain situations and I believe that this makes her easier to relate to and sympathise with. These realistic traits of character are the sort of traits that attract human attention and make Sam the sort of character a viewer is able to like.

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Distribution is the selling and advertising of a product. The distributor is the link between the production of a film, the exhibition, circulation and the marketing of the film. Distribution is extremely important to a film as it can make or break it. Media institutions that are involved in distributing Fantasy Films are usually independent companies. Pans Labyrinth and Lord of the Rings were both distributed by independent film companies (New Line Cinema and Esperanto Films). Due to this – considering the likeness of our film to Pans Labyrinth (E.g. The gritty fantasy world) – I believe that an independent company would distribute my media product. There is a fair possibility that an independent company like film four would distribute my product due to their reputation of taking on unique, British films (E.g. This is England, Slumdog Millionaire and Lovely Bones).
Using film four specifically, the company would be more likely to distribute my film (When fully filmed) due to it being a completely British film (E.g. British Director, Cast, Producer). A second reason an independent film company would distribute my film could be due to the possible ease when advertising it – my media product has a fair few USP'S (Unique selling points) such as: the gritty fantasy world, the sensitive situation at home and the unusual characters. A third reason could be the wide fan – base that already exists for the supernatural/ fantasy films, the fan - base alone could bring in potential viewers and with that money.

Q4. Who would be the audience for your product?

Upon planning my product, I was unsure what sort of audience it would target or attract. However, during the production of my film and after my media product was complete, myself and the other members of my coursework group had decided that our media product would target those aged fifteen and above. To assure that the personal rating of our film was true to the law, I researched and used the British board of film classification's guidelines. According to the BBFC, for a film to be within the boundaries of a fifteen certificate, it can have drug taking, horror, imitable behaviour, strong language, nudity sex and violence. However, if a film is only a fifteen certificate, it cannot promote the misuse of drugs, the horror of the film cannot be sadistic or sexual, dangerous (imitable) behaviour – for example, suicide or self harming – cannot be shown in detail, repeated use of the strongest language is unacceptable, sexual activities, nudity and violence cannot be in strong detail either. My media product keeps within the boundaries of a fifteen certificated film (using the BBFC's guidelines) as it only uses strong language mildly, there is no use of drugs, nudity or sexual references or imitable behaviour, the violence in the extract is quite strong and make up is used to high light bruises but it is not a major factor without our film.
I researched the films we looked at and considered for influence and noticed that most films were certified PG's, but Pans Labyrinth (Which our film has likeness to) was certificated 15 for strong language and violence. This research also helped to decide what sort of age our audience would be. We researched into our genre and found the fan – base for Fantasy films was quite large, the humane need for escapism being the root for that. I also found – in research – that certain elements of horror/ violence and trouble attract aged fifteen audience and as a group we made sure that these elements existed.

Q5. How do you attract/ address your audience?

I researched main ways to attract our target audience and decided that the three best ways to attract audiences would be cinema, internet, Viral Marketing and televisions. Viral Marketing/ Advertising is a technique used to increase awareness of a brand or product, it is usually found through out social networking websites but is not limited to them. I decided on these four because they are the things that attract and grab attention, most of those who are aged fifteen have access to internet, money to go to the cinema (Trailers for the film), Viral Marketing and television daily. During a screening, we allowed our target audience to watch our media production. After viewing our product we gave out questionnaire's (deciding collectively that this was an effective way to get audience feedback) and then took them back in. Traits within our product that were commented on were the uniqueness of our film, many members of the audience complimented the transition from the real world into the fantasy world, the development of the characters that were introduced and the fact that the fantasy world in itself wasn't the typical presentation of another world (It wasn't glamorous but gritty). Most members understood our product and said that the genre of our product was made clear very quickly, they believed that it stuck to conventions and interestingly enough, bent some of them. Mostly, our audience feedback was positive.
Personally and in comparison to the audience feedback we received, I believe that we were mostly successful in reaching our target audience. I believe this because of the feedback we received, if we had not been successful then our feedback would not have been as positive as it was. My group are reasonably close to the audience we were targeting, due to our close age group we have similarities in what we like and so were able to cater better for our audience.

Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During the process of constructing my media product I used many new technologies. Before my preliminary I had never used a camera and that enabled me to practise with it so when it came to my main task, I had a better understanding of the product. Again, I had never used Apple Macs before my preliminary, during that time I had not grasped how to use them properly but during my main task I learnt how to edit and use the macs. The editing programme's available on the mac's were a new technology to me and again, my preliminary (although the editing on that task was basic) enabled me to practise for my main task.
The benefits of portable camera's was the easy mobility: they were easier to travel with (to locations for filming) than other camera's I had seen before hand. The Apple Macs were beneficial because they have their own video editing programme. The programme organised the clips and made chronological editing a lot easier than it would have been in any other way, the editing facilities within this programme enabled me to edit better than I would have earlier: the fade in and fade out effects used for editing helped us to integrate our music into our media product smoothly. The use of black outs on the programme emphasised the transition from one world (Reality) into another (Fantasy). Another advantage of the new editing programme is that compared to the old way, everything is edited a lot quicker rather than cutting and pasting film reels together. Whilst these technologies had benefits, they also had limitations. The camera's made filming outside difficult, if it was a windy day then the camera would catch the sound of the wind and make dialogue a lot harder to hear (background noise is known as ambience), when using a tripod there are limitations in mobility (a problem with dolly shots) and another limitation of using camera's are the range of shots (depending on the zoom magnification of the camera used). Limitations of the Apple Macs were that there was only one programme to use and this programme only offered certain editing processes, due to the fact that we chose a Fantasy genre our film relied quite heavily on editing – namely special affects, transitions, CGI and SFX (However CGI and SFX are very costly) - the Apple Macs did not provide adequate programme's for us to add special effects and so hindered us in editing.
Other technologies would have made our media product successful. Networked Macs would have made our product more successful because it would then have been easier to access certain bits of information whilst editing our film, easier to upload our product and easier for the public to access it. As said previously, different editing programme's would have made our film more successful, because with such programme's we then would have been able to add certain affects (CGI and SFX), these other programme's could have given a wider range of affects to choose from.

Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progress from it to the full product?

During my preliminary task I learnt many things, the use of certain technologies,the importance of editing, how time consuming producing a film (Even the beginning of one) is and the importance of organisation during a film. In the preliminary, I used technologies which were new to me: Camera's and Apple Macs, I also used editing programme's – something that I had never done before. Using these technologies in my preliminary enabled me to practise and better the new skills I had for when we filmed our main task.
In many ways my main task has improved from my preliminary. My main task was a lot more focused and clear because I had to be more specific about genre's and conventions within that genre. Compared to my preliminary, my coursework is a lot more structured and is easier to understand – when I had to edit for my main task, I was more skilled with the editing programme's and so the structure of my product is a lot tighter than it had been, due to the better structure, my product was also easier to understand. Wholly, the idea for my coursework is much more interesting than that for the preliminary which in itself makes my media product better. Camera angles in my full product have a wider range than they do in the preliminary – where everything was very simple – during the filming of the main task, my group were a lot more creative with the shots we used, we stuck to the one hundred and eighty degree rule during conversations but the wide range of angles enabled the viewer to see much more of our setting.
If I was given a choice to improve anything in my main task, I would. Upon planning I had a certain image of how everything was going to be and due to the limited time we had to film, it did not have much likeness to my perception of the idea. If we had more time and certain editing programme's then I believe that we would have been able to make our setting more surreal than it already was. I would improve the steadiness of the shots in our film, we didn't use the tripod available to us and so, if we could film again, I would have made sure that we did use them.

Audience research and Editing.

Audience Research:

Considering the films we used and considered for inspiration, I decided to do some research on the audience's that Pans Labyrinth, Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers, The imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and Narnia: The Lion the Witch and Wardrobe attracted.
I researched what certificate's these films were given by the BBFC (British board of film classification) . Pans Labyrinth was certificated 15 for strong language and violence. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was certified PG-13 for epic battle sequences and scary images (taken from idmb). The imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus was certified PG-13 for violent images, some sensuality, language and smoking (taken from torrents). Narnia: The Lion the Witch and Wardrobe was certified PG (Taken from idmb).

Note: consider this for evaluation questions.



Editing:


My group finished our editing within the deadline and - as said previously - it was a lot more time consuming than I realised. We finished most of the editing but were still over two minutes long. We all recognised that we had far too much loaded into such a small amount of time and had to go back on our original plans (Flash backs into reality and flash forwards to show Sam's death) and cut out pieces of film to narrow it down. In the end, however, our film looked a lot better for it.
We had an organised screening (Using our class members) and provided questionnaire's for audience feedback, soon the feedback and our main task will be posted.

Feedback form.

Here is the basic design for the feedback form we gave to our viewers to fill out after watching our coursework:

1) Please select your gender: Male Female

2) Which genre do you think our piece is?

Romantic Comedy o

Fantasy o

Action o

Comedy o

Other (please specify) _____________________

3) Have we improved since our prelim?


4) What certificate would you rate this piece? (please circle)

U 12A 15 18

5) What would you improve in our piece?


6) Did you enjoy our piece?


7) If you answered yes to question 6, what was your favourite part?

8) Would you want to watch the rest of the film?