Minimal research is actually evidenced. No storyboards are shown. The film is well structured and very well constructed showing a good understanding of t=all the requried elements. However, it was not loaded on to the blog. The evaluation is well written and demonstrates understanding.

Planning 6/20 Production 49/60 Evaluation 15/20 70/100 B

Evaluation

• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
During the making of my film, my basic understanding of films and thier conventions comes from real media products that I have experienced and drawn knowledge/opinions from. This means that I have designed the film around using the same forms and conventions. I developed these in a personal sense by learing about more complicated on-screen proceedures such as the 180 degree rule which I have demonstrated knowledge of, shot reverse-shot which I have deomstrated and match-on-action which has also been displayed. Seeing as this project was to display understanding of the syllabus taught, I chose not to challenge any of the main forms and conventions. If I were to pick out one example that I have used that would not usually bee seen in a 'real' media product, it would be the out-take style ending to my film which is meant more to give a humerous spin to the last scene than to be taken as a serious part of the production and is easily removable.

• How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My film is based around the type of characters that could have been found in Victoria college around the time it was founded, diciplinarian teachers and grovelling, scared young children. These are social groups that have been established by historic films, documentaries and the way in which actors portray these characters. The upper class accents and strict, public school teachers stereo-typically represent the characters I have in my film as well as things like body language and the angle from which I have shot the scenes from, to create the illusion that the over-powering teacher is taller and more prominant than the insignificant student.

• What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
My media product is a short film that could be used as a taster clip for the full, feature length movie to come. This sort of promotional clip (if a real production) would be distributed to as many media outlets as possible, primarily being television channels. This would give my production the maximum publicity available.

• Who would be the audience for your media product?
The only active audience that will be viewing my production will by my subject teacher in his evaluation. There will be other passive viewers such as my class mates and other school friends but their incentives for viewing the production will be entirely different and not particulary relative or beneficial to me.


• How did you attract/address your audience?
As my production was directed, filmed, produced, acted out and edited by teenage boys, the content and context was aimed primarily at that age range and sex. I attracted this audience by making the one and only actor a teenage male as well as the dialouge, humour and editing pace of the production. I addressed this audience by having a character either side of the desired age range so that they could relate to the child as they once were one and they could relate to the strict teacher as they are in the company of such people every day of their school lives. This gave the audience something to relate to more personally and sub-conciously raised their interest in the production.

• What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Every element of the production of this movie involved electronic equipment ranging from a digital camera (in the form of my phone) to take photos of the hand drawn story boards that I had produced to a piece of software called iMovie that allowed me to create a professional looking product. Before I started this assignement, I had a little basic knowledge of how to use not only the Apple mac's but also 'iMovie'. Through trial & error and a whole lot of re-runs I now feel that I can confidently use iMovie to create a range of different styles of product. I also feel that as a result of our extensive knowledge of camera shots, composition and editing, I can capture and produce media products involving film much more competantly now!

Finished film...

Editing..

For the downloading, conversion to '.mov' and most importantly the editing, I have used a mac-based programme called iMovie. This is a fantastic beginner programme with a few advanced features that I have been getting my teeth stuck into to make my film as professional looking as possible. During the editing there a few main areas to consider;
Cutting - which clips go where. The clip before any clip in question totally changes how the audience views the situation so the correct placement of clips is important.
Transitions - the way the clips are blended together. This makes a huge difference to the general feel of the film. If slow 'cross disolves' are used between each clip then the film takes a more relaxed feel. If there are short, sharp cuts that last only a few seconds at most, it raises the audience's action awareness senses. a bit like a media based spideysense :)
Sound effects- aditional sounds to compliment an action in a clip
Music- the addition of musical backing. This is as important as all the visual techniques put together as it is a totally different human sense. The pace, tone, style and genre of the music use must all compliment the style in which the film is being produced.
INSERT SCREENSHOT
here is my movie being editied in iMovie complete with sound effects, transitions and music.

Filming

To get the desired feel for my film, certain types of shots need to be used in the right scenes. This would involve camera positioning, composition and shot type. An example of them all in one go, could be a low-angle, extreme close-up with a shallow focus. This would be used to film an intimidating character hence the 'looking up at them' from a low angle shot. The shallow focus would ensure that the extreme close-up had maximum effect on the character's face making everything around in the 'mid' and background slightly out of focus and blurred whilst the actor is crystal clear. I will attempt to demonsrate these shots and others in my film.

Storyboards

To make sure I have a common goal with the actor I use and to keep the film on target, I have filled in two pages of story boards encompassing 12 basic frames.
INSERT PICTURE
these storyboards helped me to establish a theme and basic genre. I decided to go with a slightly 'tongue-in-cheek' approach to the thriller genre giving my film a suspenceful yet comical feel.

The 'doing bit'...

So, I am at the stage now of actaully creating my film project. I have chosen a friend (Manners) to act and I have drawn up story boards to determine the plot and basic camera angles etc. of the film to make sure it stays on track and doesn't digress from the point I am trying to get across.
There are four main stages to the production phase;
1.Planning - story boards.
2.Filming - capturing the clips needed.
3.Editing - cutting, adding music and transitions
4. Publishing - saving the project as a '.mov' file and uploading it to a video hosting website such as 'youtube.