Problems that arised

Throughout the whole making of my opening film many problems were raised, some I was able to overcome, yet as I run out of time particular aspects weren't able to be adapted in time.
Fern and I had encountered many mistakes through out the process, which at times made it very difficult to adapt to these situations. Nevertheless, working as a team made us fulfil things much easier.
A problem that always occurred was the use of tutorials and technology that we was using. It appeared that Fern and I were very unlucky when it come to saving and then finding our work, for some odd reason each lesson it was always a long process to actually get working as we were always unable to open our work even though it was there. This became extremely annoying, as we didn't have the time to waste, yet there was nothing we could do about it. Fern and I were unable to control these problems that were being raised with the technology, therefore we had to be patient and try and overcome them using different sources of technology (other peoples Macs) eventually we had used different methods of adapting to this annoying situation that we were constantly in. Even though this appeared to be a problem, it had also taught me to be patient and made me aware that not everything is always expected to go as plan, therefore I had to think of different ways to defeat these difficulties. This wasn't a problem in the making of my preliminary task.
A problem that was raised was trying to keep the ticking clock consistent throughout the whole duration, at the ending we had used sound effects which suggests someone is ringing one of the girls yet the stalker walks over to the mobile and disconnects the call, however as he was walking the ticking of the clock had stopped and also the phone ringing. This was extremely irritating, as it defeated the object of time running out and disconnecting the call. After many alterations of trimming specific sound affects, Fern and I had luckily mastered this problem.
Finalising our videos was always a long process, and each time we added more effects or improved it in a particular way it would take even longer (20-30 minutes). As this process was very long it was extremely irritating once it had finalised that we would be addressed with another error. As we approached the deadline, we had finalised our opening and had then noticed another error again. The ticking of the clock was also in the background of the institution, this was very annoying as when I had searched on other film openings I had noticed this isn't something that a film would usually have, therefore the conventions of using an institution aren't entirely being followed. Unfortunately Fern and I had run out of time to go back and alter this,  I feel that if we had improved this it would make our film look more professional.
I feel there are slight improvements that Fern and I could make to ensure that our film opening looks as professional as possible, nevertheless due to time running out we are unable to do this. From the feedback that I have gained from both peers in my media class and teachers I have realised of the improvements that could be made. An improvement that was suggested was to paste the ticking of the clock to build up the tension in a slower movement, I feel this improvement would appeal more to my target audience as it would leave them more excited for the big reveal. I am hoping that I will have time to go back and adapt this as I feel it would definitely emphasise time running out. This would add to the conventions of a thriller genre.
Another problem that arised was the dates in the note pad being incorrect, as we had done it by each month whereas we should had done it for each individual date of each month. This was extremely infuriating, as it would require re-doing the whole list of dates, re-shooting the footage and then re-applying it to the film, although this is an easy process and would be easy to overcome Fern and I had run out of time to complete this task therefore had to leave it this way. Although this is a minor mistake, it is observed as a major mistake. I feel if we had adapted this the audience would be able to feel more enticed by the further events as it would show that this has been a regular occurance to then build up to be "depleted"

 

Changes

Through out the making of our opening Fern and I had constantly made changes, some were very minor yet some were major. The changes we made had always improved our opening, it also developed our skills of using the technologies and tutorials, especially compared to when we produced our Preliminary task. Through the few videos that I have uploaded on here, you will be able to see clearly some of the adaptions that I have made. I felt it was easy to complete the opening and then review back the entire opening to notice what needed to improve. I had taken advise from both teachers and peers in my media class, the advise that I received encouraged me to make changes, as it was more important for the audience to be lured by the opening than Fern and I. Reviewing back my preliminary task had also encouraged me to make changes as it was clear of the failures that I had made in that, therefore I didn't want to make the same lapses in my two minute opening.
Once Fern and I had uploaded all of our footage onto Imovie we had realised that the contrasts of colours varied as we had filmed at different times in the day. This had became a major problem as the contrasts didn't match, leaving the footage to be unrelevant to one another.



The image above is how the clock scenes were before we had altered the contrast, although it looks clear and bright this wasn't the style we were hoping for. It looked very out of constrast in comparison to the rest of our footage and as for this reason we knew that this was something that had to be changed. Once I had selected a colour which I felt was appropriate for the content and thriller genre, I had then applied it to every piece of footage so that all of the scenes matched, as well as making the scenes match it evidentely created a dull tone which can relate to the negativitiy that is occuring in the scenes.
Fern and I had continueously trimmed pieces of footage, we had done this as we felt some parts were unnesscary and would leave the audience to be bored, and that was something that we were obviously trying to avoid. We had also trimmed some parts as it was signifcant that we hadn't gone over the two minute duration, therefore some parts had to be trimmed otherwise we wouldn't of achieved on one of the main purposes.
The first time we had finalised our opening we hadn't included many non diagetic sound effects. Fortunately Fern and I were aware that this was a huge weakness as it made our opening look slightly unrealistic and boring. For this reason we had searched on garage band all the differnet sound effects that were provided, and chose ones that we felt would be appropriate for the footage that we have. We manly looked at sound effects that would be used in the thriller genre, this was so it would add to the pressure that was being built up. The non diagetic sounds that we added, had evidentely improved our film, I personally think it makes the audience feel more involved, whereas before all we had was the ticking clock. We had done this as we wanted to exagerate the danger that was gradually buiding up and will soon will develop into a tradgedy occurance. I feel that adding more non diagetic sound affects made the audience specifically focus. It was as if the little noises sounded much louder due to the tension that was being built up. Including more non diagetic sounds were a major improvement to not only this opening but also from when I had created my premilianry task, as I hadn't incorporated any in that. I feel that including more non diagetic sounds helped the audience get a precise conclusion of what genre we achieved.

 

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms of conventions of real media products?

Fern and I had to ensure that we were aware of the conventions of a thriller genre,  so that we would know what our target audience would expect to see. We were enthusiastic to challenge the conventions as well as follow, as we felt we didn’t want to be stereotypical with every aspect of the constructing of this project. We had used the internet to search on familiar thriller films to see how the conventions are used, this had influenced and encouraged our ideas as we were able to see what was expected for us to achieve. I had also used the internet as a source of research to gain self opinions of what conventions people expect to see in thriller films. I feel this was very valuable as Fern and I were then able to develop our ideas further.
The content of our project was extremely stereotypical as we included features that would often be identified in other thriller films.  The use of stalker was extremely stereotypical in this film, as many other thriller films do this, however it could be suggested as challenging as we hadn’t evoked the stalkers identity, whereas in a film like the “lovely bones” the identity of the stalker is completely shown. We felt a hidden identity would be a lot more enticing as it built up the tension of the secrecy.I believe the use of secrecy made the audience more intrigued as they were impatient to find out the expose of the stalker.  Using an unidentified stalker made the audience willing to continue with watching, as they would be eager to see what the rest of the film may show. It could be suggested that we had been stereotypical as we included silhouettes a body frame and parts of he’s body to provide the audience with evidence yet only minor evidence, this follows the thriller conventions as thrillers often include mysterious effects.
We had followed the conventions of a thriller film by incorporating an institution; we felt that this was significant as it made our film look a lot more professional compared to before where we just had “New line cinema presents” overlapping some of our film footage.  We felt that following this convention had made our film much more successful as it represented  a more proficient approach, it was also a convention that our target audience expected to see and for this reason it was vital to include.

At first Fern and I hadn't used an actual instiution once we had received feedback from a variety of invidiuals it was aware that this was a major fault of our opening, and for this reason we had ensured that we had incorporated one.

 


I feel that the use of mise-en-scene in our film opening follows the conventions of a thriller film; an unexpected location is something that is often used in thriller films as the audience do not suppose that something like this would be an occurrence in a “friendly” neighbourhood. Fern and I had chosen to film in a friendly location as it would not only be the safer option yet it also provides the audience with anticipation to find out the following scenes. In my opinion using a friendly location in the British Culture could represent culture, and how culture will always have negativitiy even if you do live in a friendly area.I feel that the costumes also follow the conventions as it is not often that characters over -exaggerate their costumes to then make the content obvious, therefore Fern and I had stuck to the stereotypical outlook of two vulnerable teenagers, we had also done this as we wanted to represent teenagers in a way that they are seen in today's society. We felt that if we had chosen provoicative clothing for the two teenage girls to wear it would be expected that something bad will occur.

The use of diagetic and non diagetic sounds followed the conventions of a thriller film, the consistency of the clock was extremely annoying, however this build up tension, as the ending of the opening became closer Fern and I had decided to increase the paste, we felt that this would make it much more enticing as it would propose that time is running out and therefore as a result something bad will occur. I am unsure on whether this was successful or not as although the clock was rather irritating it was also engaging, due to being irritationg it was as if the audience themselves were waiting for it to end to stop the annoyance, and also reach the climax. Nevertheless a huge weakness was raised after we had reviewed our finalised project, Fern and I had become aware of how the opening lasted for two minutes, yet the clock movement didn't match with this. This was extremely annoying as by this time Fern and I didn't have enough time to refilm the clock footage, this was a major flaw of our opening as it didn't represent time running out in the way we hoped. However, if we do have time to adapt to this we will definetely  refilm the clock footage to ensure that the movement is evident.

 I feel that following the conventions is usually the best option, as otherwise our project may have been a huge failure, and would have confused our target audience.  Fern and I had tried to develop the conventions by not only using the stereotypical aspects but contributing further ideas, as we felt it would engage our target audeince a lot more.

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

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

Fern and I had done some research on institutions during the preparation of this project; we felt that this would increase our knowledge and awareness of why particular institutions are used for different genres of films. Fortunately it had done this; we were inspired by the institutions that popular films have used. However, we had to mainly focus on the genre thriller. Originally Fern and I hadn’t included an actual institution and had just used an over lapping text on our footage saying !New line Cinema presents" , we had used this institution text as when carrying out research it was evident that thriller films often used this, and for this reason we felt the audience would be more prone to know what genre we were hoping to achieve.
When Fern and I had finalised our project we felt that this was huge weakness as the audience weren’t able to identify clearly what institution we was using( as we hadn't used an actual one). The feedback we had received had encouraged our ideas to then add one in as those who had made criticism had usually asked why we hadn’t of used one, we had both agreed this would give our film opening a much more professional effect.  Unfortunately I wasn’t able to help Fern adapt to this situation as during this time of applying the institution I was in an exam therefore Fern had taken on the duty of doing this. Fern and I had changed the institution to paramount vintage; before we had done this we had researched what particular genre of films this is usually associated with to ensure that it was a real establishment. The research had also consisted of making sure that it was suitable for the content as the producer of the film has to be the same as the genre. For an example “The parent trap” would not be appropriate to use this institution as it doesn’t follow the conventions of the genre that is supposed to be matched with. Once we had added in the institution we had then asked a group of peers of their opinions, the feedback that we had received was much more positive than before, therefore we were sure this was the correct decision, as it targeted more to our audience.
This is a British Film; this is evident by the weather conditions, location and the accents of our voices. During the footage where both Fern and I are talking on the phone the audience will instantly become alert that this is a British film because of the accents.
Fern and I hadn’t considered creating a film of a different continent i.e. American film,as we aren't familiar with the way they live their lives, and the different clothing, location and manners that they portray. Thereforeconstructing a British film seemed to be the much easier option and would hopefully be more successful.
Fern and I hadn’t used a listed actors/ actresses in our film however we had ensured that the more significant characters were highlighted from the less significant. We felt that the most famous a listed actors/actresses are usually American; for this reason we wasn't able to use them as our film was a British film, and we didn't want our target audience to be confused about the way we were challenging and using the conventions of our film.
Fern and I was eager to make the audience immediately aware which characters are more important than others. For this reason we had made them a larger font size in comparison to the less important characters. We had adapted the titles to be more bold, once we had done this we felt it looked much rather attractive for our target audience, and also attained an engaging profesisonal approach.
 

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Fern and I was eager to create a video which would also increase the self awareness of social groups. Due to the content that we had included we felt the use of mise-en-scene should be entirely realistic to make the audience feel more involved. Fern and I had chosen to stick to the stereotype of two teenage girls during this era. We felt that when we had encountered this more of our audience would be able to identify with it. The costumes that Fern and I had dressed in was extremely casual and therefore didn’t represent an unrealistic approach, both Fern and I were keen to represent social groups as accurate as possible. We felt that it was significant to dress how we usually would, to show how evil and cruel society is to those who don’t even indicate a provocative style. Fern and I had portrayed social groups to be naive and have low social awareness we felt that this is how most teenagers can be, we had emphasised especially the social group of females as we feel they are a lot more susceptible than males. However once again that is following the stereotype of what the media evokes. Fern and I had represented social groups by the actions that we used i.e. using mobile phones as a form of communication, meeting each other, smiling, talking etc. Fern and I had chosen to represent social groups in a stereotypical way to influence those who are similar to this to then ensure they are more aware of what society is like.  Unfortunately we had only used minor footage which portrayed very little actions that teenagers have, we had used this when we were walking past the stalkers house by having little conversation and smiling to each other. No other social group of is represented in this film opening; however I feel it can apply to the majority of teenagers during this era. I feel that our film opening could represent the social group of class, I feel that working class/lower class individuals are able to identify with this, Fern and I didn’t attain this as well as we hoped as didn’t emphasise it enough. However I don’t feel that, that is a huge problem as the content is more important rather than the class that we are suggesting. Fern and I have represented the social group of lower/working class by the location that we have set it in, we haven’t used a location which suggests exaggerated, and therefore we had settled with our neighbourhood.  The real media continuously provides us with stories how evil individuals have been charged for being paedophiles, these cases often show that the children/teenagers that who have sadly experienced this are vulnerable, as a result Fern and I felt we would also use a social group of venerable teenagers as it will also be a caution to parents to perhaps ensure that they know what their child is doing etc. Fern and I had stuck to one particular social group as we felt something like this is exposed regularly in the real media, therefore if we had incorporated a selection of social group’s confusion to the audience may have been raised. 

What have you leant about technologies from the process of constructing this project?

Creating this project had taken a lot of patience, as we were introduced to technologies that we had never used before. GCSE media studies consisted of using normal hard ware computers, however AS media was a big step as we were introduced to the macs. I was extremely eager to use these as they looked thrilling to use.  However, once I had begun to use them I felt irritated not knowing how to do particular things. It took time to work out the resources and all of the programmes provided on the macs , however during this time I had massively improved my skills. The macs have required advanced using, as otherwise you would instantly be confused. I feel that Fern adapted a lot quicker than myself and as a result was able to work instantly, however it took me huge practice but eventually I was able to use the programmes and adapt to different situations that were raised.  Constructing this product was extremely difficult as It involved several different programmes on the macs such as; imovie, garage band, final cut express. Each programme required different skills, I was firstly unaware of what the features offered, however once I began to use them more and more I was capable. I was able to challenge by self by taking on more difficult tasks as I progressed throughout the making of our film opening. I felt though during process the hardest part was to ensure that the edits flowed, therefore when using imovie I had to input huge effort in taking time to ensure that every piece of footage and edits etc was accurate and precise. I feel that I had addressed garage band rather patiently as I had endless amounts of ideas of what I thought would be appropriate to include, when creating the voice over I felt that it was significant that the voice had a male tone to it, therefore I had searched through all of the features on garage band to make sure I had selected the most appropriate one. I have learnt that when using the macs the process of constructing the project takes an extremely long time, therefore you have to be willing to come across failures and complications to eventually produce a winning project. Another technology that I had used was the camera to video the footage, I felt that even though I had never used these specific cameras before I was able to adapt straight away, the cameras are extremely easy to use therefore I didn’t have to have structured instructions  to work out the buttons etc. During the time of using both the macs and camera I felt that my independence has improved. We wasn’t taught how to use the macs, therefore had to work it out for ourselves. Although at times I felt as though I wanted to give up if something was going wrong, I had continued to be patient and eventually was able to overcome my problems. Fern and I had chosen to mainly use imovie instead of final cut express as we felt even though it was harder to use it provided us with more editing options, from the beginning of the process to the ending it is evident that both Fern and I skills have exclusively improved.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Who would be the audience for your media product? How did you attact/address your audience?

The target audience was something that had to be considered when creating my film opening. It was important that I had taken on board what genre individuals would be interested by, and what expectations they would have for my film opening. A film should have a target audience as otherwise it would be aimed to no specific group, this would lead to individuals not being enticed by it, and as a result the film would be unsuccessful.
The main method that Fern and I had used to set our target audience was a questionnaire, this questionnaire provided questions of the subject; films, and once I had received the results I had instantly become aware of what interests my target audience have.
The target audience for my film opening is 15-45, Fern and I felt this was appropriate as anyone younger than 15 years of age may become frightened of the scenes that we have included, Fern and I had to therefore ensure that when creating our video we didn’t use scenes which contained too much violence, bad language etc for that reason we used minor inappropriateness. Fern and I feel that opening video wouldn’t appeal to a mass audience over the age of 45, for that reason we felt the age 45 was suitable.Never the less, we had looked at this particular set age group from a different perception, anyone in society could face this (being stalked) therefore there shouldn't be an age limit. Fern and I have aimed this film to both genders; we feel that although it’s an entertaining film, it could be suggested as a warning; therefore we felt it was suitable for both sexes. We had tackled this by using both female and male characters, to enable the audience to feel more involved.
Fern and I haven’t used any particular music that our target audience could associate with, however if we did I believe it would be a very difficult decision as our target audience is extremely large. Nevertheless, I feel that teenagers of both genders can connect with the teenage girls in our film; as the majority of teenagers during this era are naive and unaware of how cruel society can be. I believe teenagers may feel more alert about how evil some people can be in society, and hopefully as a result will improve their consciousness.
A failure that could be raised in our finalised project is that we had used a male stalker, Fern and I hadn’t thought beyond the stereotype and therefore used a male to follow the conventions of a thriller genre, however if we had challenged this by using a female character our target audience may feel confusion about what is happening, which would make them eager to continue to watch the rest of the film. We had stuck to the stereotype as we felt the target audience will feel more involved. The younger ages of our target audience can identify more with the use of props such as a mobile phone as a form of communication. I believe the target audience could perhaps relate to the use of location, as it wasn’t an unrealistic location, we had used an area which was in both Fern and I neighbourhood and was easily accessible (being my house) I feel that Fern and I have attracted our target audience instantly by the use of the ticking clock, already the audience are introduced to sound which could instantly suggest that time is running out, this refers back to our title "Depleted" Over all Fern and I had continuously referred back to our target audience in the making of our film opening, this was to make sure that our audience would be attracted by each feature that we had included.
Our target audience had participated in the process of creating this film, they had constantly provided Fern and I with advise of what they felt worked well and what could be further improved. This had definitely helped us as otherwise we wouldn't know if it was successful or not. Our target audience had given us feedback once we had finalised our video, a huge weakness that was raised was not including an actual institution, this had encouraged Fern and I's decisions to then add one as it was something that our target audience expect to see and will be hooked by.
The use of secrecy of the stalkers identity attracted our target audience, as it left them in anticipation of wondering who the stalker was. I feel that if we had included more shots of the stalker doing different things in a sharp paste, it would certainly entice the audience more .Fern and I hope to adapt our finalised opening again if possible by incorporating more footage of the stalker, we feel this will imrpove our opening as the audience can build up more assumptions for the stalkers identity.
I am indecisive on whether the ticking clock attracts the audience, in some ways I feel it is enticing due to it's annoyance, yet from another perspective it could be suggested as to annoying that as a result they do not want to continue in watching the film. I feel it would be a lot better if we had pasted the clock, firstly using one tick, then two, etc. I feel using a gradual movement with relate to the narrative aswell as build up tension and lure our target audience.