Evaluation Questions:

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

media products?When I was researching for my film opening, I studied: The Fault in

Stars, The Vow, and The Other Woman which all conform to the genre romance. I gathered my information from YouTube trailers and film openings.

I put together of some reoccurring conventions throughout these three films and placed them into a PowerPoint, the main three conventions often used are: location, a female lead character, a crisis which challenges the relationship.

I chose not to challenge the conventions as I was only filming the first two minutes. I felt that the first two minutes are significant in establishing the genre, challenging the conventions would possibly confuse the audience and it would only be in the first two minutes.

Furthermore, the micro elements: mise-en-scene, editing, camerawork

and sound, are significant in order to establish the genre. The editing for my film consisted of fading transitions of one shot into

the other, therefore creating a soft flowing film opening. The Fault in Our Stars, for example, also employs fading transitions rather than cutting. This is due to constant cutting transitions making the film appear more fast-pace in comparison to a gentle flow.

Studying films such as: Sex and the City and Confessions of a Shopaholic, I decided that a narrator would be a perfect method in order to give the audience an insight of what has happened.

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

Within my film opening, there are two social classes represented: females and males. Firstly the costume and props display her being a typical girly girl. Her room is brightly coloured matching her costume and personality. I also planned to display woman as needing to rely on a male figure, she has tantrums like a stereotypical female and she is emotional. For example:

On the other hand, the male character is represented oppositely to the female character. In public, he is the one placing his arm around her, displaying how she is his. He places his hands in his pockets conveying that he is the strong, dominant character. Several times throughout the scene, he looks down towards her in admiration, also he winds her up, resulting in the physical affection.

Q4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

0 For my product, my primary audience is based at teenagers, particularly the females who can relate to the content.

0 To the left is a screenshot of the audience feedback for my product, all teenagers or a middle aged women. All comments were positive and therefore acts as evidence as to whether my product attracts my target audience.

0 I believe that teenage females can relate the issues raised in the film and that’s the reason as to why I decided to classify as a 12. As our theme has a strong terminal illness theme, strong language and scenes of brief and discrete nature, it could be classified as either a 12 or 15. The film will not be including strong nudity scenes, frequent strong language or violence so therefore it can be classified under a 15.

0 After studying films such as The Fault in Our Stars and If I Stay with similar themes, I realised that their classifications was so my audience should be based around this research.

Q5; How did you attract/ address your audience?0 The mise-en-scene should be appealing to my target audience, therefore the

costume remained very laid back, causal and relaxing – something that teenagers often lounge around in. The make-up was kept pretty simple with just eyeliner and mascara on, nothing too dramatic for around the house. The characters setting was place in a bedroom. It was very girly; looks of red colours, blankets, photos with friends on the wall. A typical female teenage bedroom. The character actions and body language was very laid back, something quite relatable. Her costume and setting set her social class as the working class, her family are wealthy and therefore she can have these nice items. A stereotypical teenager is known to have mood swings or a little attitude, therefore we intend for our character to throw a diary across the room in order to show attitude and emotion. Stereo typically a romance film would be associated with females in their teens and above, this is due to the actors used within the film. They are usually young adults, the audience being at a similar age means they can easily relate to the characters.

0 Our audience feedback appeared to be positive, the opening alone engaged the audience and they were wanting to see the remainder of the film. I gathered this feedback from the Our Last Christmas Facebook page.

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

Q7; Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it

to the full product?0 When filming my preliminary task, there was no planning into what I was actually

filming. Two of my classmates were being filmed having a small conversation, however with the lack of planning, it appears faked, forced and put on spot. If the conversation was planned, it then could have flowed and looked natural.

0 Furthermore, looking back at my preliminary task and comparing it to my film opening, my quality of footage has vastly improved. My two shots, were filmed at an angle rather than being straight on, this could be due to the fact the camera wasn’t locked down on a tripod. When filming for my film opening, a tripod was used in a majority of the shots, and the quality of the shot is exceptionally better. Holding the camera myself resulted in a lot shaky footage, which simply looked awful.

0 My editing skills have majorly improved. The preliminary task was edited using iMovie, and it was one of the first times actually editing many shots together. For my preliminary task, I had a lack of footage for when it came to editing, I didn’t think I would need back-up footage incase a shot was poorly filmed. I simply filmed a shot and assumed it would be okay; this made my editing task extremely difficult and was why my lack of footage was evident in my finished video. From this mistake, I knew that when I film I need to ensure I continue re-shooting a shot until it was perfect, therefore it would flow together when edited. For the diary scene, it took days of re-shooting in order to get a shot correct, however all this paid off in the end.

The camera was different