Evaluation

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

Looking back on my preliminary task I have learnt so much, i've learnt how to be independant in my production, how to organise the people I was working with, how to structure when and where I was filming. I was really enthusiastic about the task at first and rearing to go, keeping up that enthusiasm and determination to finish is hard work especially when all the exciting bits are done. The last stretch was especially difficult, but now that it's all done i'm really proud of what i've achieved and how far i've come from when I started. I haven't just learnt a lot about making my own production and putting together my own footage etc. but also about the media industry itself, because our work has to be targeted at a certain audience we can't just go off the rails and make any old thing, we have to rein ourselves in and through that I developed a lot of creative discipline. I know so much more about filming, angles, sound, lighting and the effect I want on the audience than I did when I set out to do my preliminary task I really had no idea then. It's really been a progression from little kid in a sweet shop to a mature student who understands the task ahead of them. I'm really proud of my achievement throughout this year.

Evaluation

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

During this project I learnt how to use many different kinds of software including after effects and premier pro which i'd never used before. I used after effects to do my ident and I used Premier Pro for all of my editing and putting together of footage and sound. Camera wise there is so much you have to learn to create a good piece of footage. For example you don't realise how many things you have to take into consideration when filming at first! Like lighting, sound, angles etc and you never realise these mistakes until you upload the footage up on the computer for editing and then you have to go back and try and get hair, costumes and time of day the same as before, for continuity. There's alot of things to think about and when you're doing this work alone, it's up to you to think and remember them all. I learnt that although there are lot of effects you can add to your footage on Premier Pro it always looks and sounds better if you get it right while you are filming. When we filmed the bit where Stella is holding up the bracelet and looking out of the window, my mum turned the camera on it's side while holding it to get my whole upper body in, but still being close enough to see my facial expressions, however when it came down to editing when we flipped the footage 90'o round it didn't fit the rest of the footage as it had two empty black strips either side, we couldn't go back and re-film it however so I just layed the credits over the black space and it ended up looking pretty good in the end. These are little things you have to think about whilst filming that can lead to much greater complications later on, luckily I was able to work round mine and made something good out of it! There are some lines in my opening, however that are slightly muffled and even though I have turned up the sound on Premier Pro, it only goes up so high! And unfortuntely some of the lines cannot be heard, in these cases I did paste music over the top, so the lines are cut out, this added effect in the end anyway so was not too much of a problem, however if I was shooting a whole film, lines would be important and simply pasting music over them wouldn't be a solution. I leant how to record a voice over and then cut it up and paste it where I wanted in sync with a certain piece of footage all thanks to Premier Pro! Blogger.com has also allowed me to upload all my posts for my media work and Youtube allowed me to download my copyright free music, which saved the day! Overall technologie is hugely important in the film industry and has been the main component in the making of the opening of my film.

Evaluation

5. How did you attract/address your target audience?

We only had two minutes for our opening clip, so attracting our target audience and making them want to watch the rest of the film in that time was tricky. I wanted to attract my audience by making them curious into the story, into what has led this character to leave her home. I chose to address my target audience by connecting to them on an emotional level, one of the comments in my feedback was that good rapport was built with character and auidence feels empathy towards her, which was how I wanted to grip my audience. My opening scene isn't scary or thrilling or very dramatic, but it is emotional and I knew that that was how I had to attract my audience. I had to make them connect with the main character and make them want to know what has or is going to happen to her.. I think I managed that, with a lot of thought and time put into making an emtotional and steady opening scene. I used the music and particulary the use of narration to do this. The shots that I chose also help this. The first shot is done close up to the main characters face and shows a lot of emotion and expression in her face, it is also a slow shot, with the credits fading in and out and the music developing, it gives the audience a chance to built rapport and empathy with the character, it's intriguing. Then I added the narration when the footage picks up a bit and the music slows right down which adds depth and brings the character to life and allows the audience an insight into her life and feelings. This allows my target audience, teenage girls preferably, to relate and empathise with the character in some way.

Evaluation..

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

I think because of the content of it being about a 15yr old having sex and getting pregnant and some of the abuse she recieves in the convent I would rate the film a Pg or a 12.

I think the target audience however is probably for teenage girls, because of the main character and the film content. It would probably interest a similar audience to that of BBC film's as they are the same english, nitty gritty, period dramas that the BBC produces and that auidence can range from all ages from teenage-hood to more elderly viewers. It would probably interest viewers who enjoy films or series with a historical content, perhaps viewers interested in feminism around this time period. The audience feedback that I got was from teenagers, both male and female from 16-18 and the general feedback was positive and interested in the subject matter. In the way of social class I think it would be targeted at both working and middle class viewers. I don't this particular film would be a main stream, blockbuster film but a lower budget film that would maybe do best on DVD sales.

Evaluation

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

I think that BBC films would distribute my film, because they do a lot of period dramas based on novels, or interpretationg a historic event or representating a period in time such as; Pride and Prejudice, Miss Potter, Becoming Jane, Wuthering Heights, The other boleyn girl, Revolutionary road, The Duchess, Jane Eyre. All of which i've watched and inspired and helped me with the making of this film. The head of BBC films ia Christine Langan who is responsible for the development and production slate, strategy and business operations. It has produced or co-produced some of the most successful British films of recent years. They produce around eight films a year working in partnership with major international and UK distributors. I think because BBC films aims to creat accurate adaptions of historical novels or events, rather than thrillers or big money making films, that my film would be best distributed by BBC films.

Evaluation

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

My film is set in the 1950's at a time where women were still restricted and not seen as a man's equal, however women had more rights than ever before and after the war were challenging their role as housewife and stay at home mum despite the government trying to re-establish domesticity as womens primary role. However at that time, sex and pregnancy outside marriage was heavily frowned upon and women were pressured into giving up illegitimate children or in some cases forced too. The government put a new emphasis on the nuclear family after the war in hope to regain the same social standing as before the war. My film challenges that immensely as it is about a 15yr old girl who falls pregnant outside of wedlock, keeps the baby and brings it up at home unmarried. Even in today's society underage pregnancy's are somewhat frowned upon, although a lot more common that in the 1950's. Also Stella is brought up in a strong catholic family, who would have strongly disapproved of sex outside of marriage and of course of Stella running away from the Nun convent that she is put in, to be punished for her sins and have her baby taken away. Many people come to Stella's rescue in the end including her friend Leo, her auntie Nora and her father. There are many different characters in the book, some who frown and look down upon Stella and allow her to be punished and have her baby taken away from her, as what happened to many women and girls who had babies out of wedlock in them days and those who challenge society and that particular religion and support Stella in her struggle to keep her baby. 

Although things were changing, women still had few rights in them days and this is shown in the film, by the fact that Stella doesn't get a choice in whether she is allowed to keep her own baby or not it is not until her father steps in and puts his foot down, does anyone listen to what she wants. The 1950s was a sexist time and this is shown clearly in my film. Although my film opening doesn't give much away about the story it does however show her father as a dominant character in the beginning. He drives Stella to her Aunties house and he decides when they leave in a dominant way while the mother is left to make tea, one of her only lines in the film opening showing the domesticity of women in that time.

Evaluation

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

I chose to do a period drama film, based on a book i'd already read. Period dramas tend to start off quite slow, introducing each character one by one and really setting the time and scene of the drama. I've watched a lot of period dramas in my time as they're my personal favourite type of films. I prefer slow, moving films to fast paced horrors or thrillers etc. I chose this book, because I know it very well, I can relate to the target audience and I felt I could interpret it and give it my own slant, which in a sense is what a lot of directors do when they want to make a film based on a novel, however I really wanted to stay as true to the novel as I could. As I often find after reading a book and then watching a film version of it, the directors change and dramatise the novel somewhat and although this makes for a more gripping film, it wasn't really what I wanted to do for my film opening. I did struggle, however to pull together a decent film opening that was true to the novel, but would be interesting enough to grip the audience when they first saw it. I had to intertwine the prologue, a bit of the ending and the start of the novel together, some bits as the narration, some as the speech and some as the scene and acting. I think this challenged me the most, because it was unlike anything I had ever had to do before, and it really required independant thought and a chance to think outside the box and we had no set guidelines for the topic or the way in which we presented our film. Sure there were rules, deadlines and guideline to HOW we do what we do, but when working individually to create something to be viewed and judged by others took a lot of thought and time. I chose to use narration, because the book first of all is somewhat a diary in the way it follows her her life through the course of two or so years and includes many of her thoughts. It is a journey essentially and I felt I couldn't show that with speech and acting alone. Also because I was using the prologue as the starting point for my opening I based the narration on the main things she says in the prologue looking back. In the end this added real effect to the opening and really made people relate to the character and made them want to know what had happened to her previously. Not many period dramas have narration in them, but one I can think of in particular was 'Lark rise to candleford' the tv series which used the main character 'Laura's' diary to describe the events of each programme. The narration is infrequent and adds emotion and thought to each programme rather than to tell the story, which is what my narration does. I used it to make the audience linger and think.