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

How does your media product represent particular social groups ?

We presented different social groups through the way they are dressed, the way they act and in what light they are presented (dialogue/plot)
The two main characters (Lucy and Ryan) and the mugger (Luke) are all in the same age category, yet they each represent different social groups. For example, Lucy demonstrates the average female of 18, working at sixthform, with a possible part-time job to keep her up - a young adult with a bright future. This is shown when she first appears, as its suggested that she's just woken up and she's heading out somewhere (work/sixthform) which ensures us that she's an independant woman with potential. Also, when drops her ID card (for sixthform) which suggests her identity on society, and her contrasting costume with the rest of the characters presented.
Ryan, however is presented in a dull light as he is seen in the same position the whole way through the introduction (until the mugging sne) - this can be a visual metaphor for the fact that he is iscolated and trapped in the clutches of society. Ryan represents the 'less fortunate' perhaps because of a bad event in his life, or that he individually is a failure and is homeless purely because he didnt try hard enough. In society today, young adults are getting fired from work, or dropping out of sixthform/college, or are moving out at alarming ages - and therefore a group of typical 'under-achievers' are formed.
Luke represents the gangster group in society where gang crimes are generated mainly, and this is demonstrated by him attemtping to steal Lucy's handbag. His clothing of a puffy coat, and scarf hiding his face will no doubt bamilar to the audience as its a common sight in society today (particularly Dagenham, where the production was filed)

How do you attract your Target Audience in your Media Production ?

Point 1 - ''The target audience for our media production is female, 13 - 19 years old. However, we dont want to rule out any male audience as some features of our production may appeal to them also.''

Point 2 - ''The audio of the strumming guitar gives a feminine and somewhat positive 'feel' to the opening sequence as it's quite calming and delicate. Our title is shown gradually fading in with swirly flowers either side to suggest romance and fate, which indicates that it was aimed at a female audience. Also, the colour white connotes innocence and purity; all of which stereotypically support female interests and perceptions.''

Point 3 - ''The arial font is considered a 'neautral' font thats niether masculine nor feminine - which demonstrates that we aren't ruling out any male audience. However, the pink colouring indicates our main aim for a female majority as females generally like the colour pink.''

Point 4 - ''The dialogue overlapping the music is a female voice, estimated at a teenage persona, who is also the actress being vistually shown simultaniously. This attracts the female audience as they feel like they can relate to Lucy's character and perhaps gain an 'insight' on Lucy's life. This builds a relationship between the character and the audience.''

Point 5 - ''Also, the actress (Lucy) is seen wearing pink slippers and a red dressing-gown - which will attract our female audience as they themselves may wear this clothing at home also. We've also identified that wearing this clothing does not percieve any particular age group, other than generally 10 or above; concluding that our target audience will relate to this style with thei ages ranging from 13 to 19.''

Point 6 - ''We've clearly shown our actress using her laptop, and through the duration of the opening sequence other devices have been used (mobile phones) - hich represents technolog today, and will attract people (of any age/sex) as they;ll be interested in whats new in technology. Also, some members of this audience may own a laptop/mobile phone themselves which will allow them to relate to the character. Popular websites/apps such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr and so on can be suggestively used in these scenes.''

Point 7 - ''We selected the popular and timeless classic 'Time After Time' which was originally recorded by Cyndi Lauper, but being covered by a new indie band 'Quietdrive' to use in the background of our opening sequence. This demonstrates the changing of style and different music genres. This song will attract our audience as a result from our questionnaire which shows that 97% of people enjoyed music and 85% of them enjoyed indie/pop songs.''

Point 8 - '' The split-screen will be like many romantic comedy sequences, like 'Love Actually' or 'The Devil Wears Prada' or '500 Days of Summer' - therefore being that our target audience watches romantic comedies like these (as shown in the questionnaire results) they will be familiar with this edit and will (from experience) know how to interpret it.''

Point 9 - ''Lucy is being shown spreading her clothes out on the bed which suggests she's getting ready. Females  especially will relate to this process as they find 'self image' (like males) very frustrating. Also, the range of clothing (for example her blue dress) enhances her femininity and sticks to conventions of a female appearance/role.  Also, in society today - females could feel pressurised to wear certain clothes that are perhaps rather revealing and inappropriate, and our character rebels this situation in society and wears a suitable and appropriate costume when she's out. Our audience will acknowledge this and could possibly feel inspired to abort the 'status quo' and be unique and comfortable with their self image.''

Point 10 - ''We've shown Lucy  applying her make-up, knowing full well that the majority of females watching this will relate, and be familiar with the enhancement of self image. Despite society today where self image is exaggerated (thick mascara and eyeliner, dark foundation and so on) Lucy contrasts this ideology and applys only little make-up. This is to assure the female audience (and perhaps males) that their appearance need not be altered to conform to society, and also that appearance isn't everything and this, (ironically) is demonstrated in the plot.''

Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full production ?

In what ways does your media use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products ? (i.e. of film openings)

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

Production Company;

A production company is in charge of producing media products, including films. Our production company is called 'MRSA' and we are in charge of everything from pre-producion to post-production.

Examples of production companies:

Film Distributer; 

Buys the rights of the production and generates the marketing for the media, for example - the film distributer (Touchstone Pictures) may buy the rights of a production from a production company (Twentieth Century Fox) to then sell to cinema's to view, or to a radio station to broadcast trailers/reviews/soundtracks. The film distributer aims to make enough money to profit both their company and the production company - to give them a strong reputation.
An unofficial distributer that would benefit these companies would be networking sites such as YouTube and Facebook, because they spread the word about these productions at a fast rate and freely.

Examples of film distributers:

Title Research.

Art of the Title is a site that our media teacher introduced us to, and in terms of research and ideas, this came in very useful.
It gives a variety of different opening sequences (of all genres) and brief expansion on how and why the credits/title/logo and so on, we're used and how they were affective/not.

Typography.

example of San-serif font; Arial, Verdana, Tahoma.
example of Serif font; Times New Roman, Garamound, Century Schoolbook.

Our Media Production; "Lost and Found"

Who would be the target audience for your media production ?

Demographics  - Megan, Female, 18 years old.

Occupation; schooling/student/part-time job.

Interests; magazines such as 'Heat', tabloid newspapers such as 'The Sun'. Listens to radio stations such as 'KISS 100' and 'Capital FM' and also music channels such as 'MTV' and 'VIVA' (etc..) Enjoys romantic films or novels, and comedy or mystery films; generated by her interest in romance and supernatural explanations (such as horoscopes and star signs).

Hobbies; include socialising via internet/technology (blackberry, social networking sites; facebook, twitter..) and traveling around (via public transport - Oyster card). Megan enjoys shopping with friends for clothes and shoes and is up to date with the latest highstreet fashion. She finds herself challenged for spare times as she's busy studying her a-levels and working a part time job in a restaurant - but in her free time, she enjoys going to the cinema with friends, or staying in and watching a 'feel good' film on her own.

Filming Day 1. Personal Development.

Today was the first day of filming, and it didnt go too well for multiple reasons.
Personally, I felt iscolated when using the camera and didnt feel confident enough to use different shots/angles/movement; this was purely because I was too conscious of time and not taking any chances of wasting the time we had.
This limited the range of shots we had, which generated the poor quality of the footage.
I hope that next time we film, I'll overcome this and feel more comfortable and able enough to explore a diversity of media techniques.

Filming Day 2. Personal Development.

So today we re-filmed Lucy's 'getting ready' scene, and it (unlike previous attempts) turned out to be successful.
I felt that I'd personally gained the confidence to move around freely and try out different angles and postitions, unlike before when I felt quite iscolated when using the camera.
Also, I've communicated to my team members effortlessly and have found that working with them as a group has been benefitial in that they can contribute to everything we do as a group, even personal goals of my own. (such as becoming more comfortable with the camera equpitment)
I'm sure that my personal progress will improve as I go on, and even contribute to my performance in the group.

Day 2. Improvements of filming.

Our improvements consisted of;
- using the correct equpitment correctly, constantly and to its full potential (tripod)
- sticking to the script/storyboard to avoid conflict within the group and misunderstanding, also this has helped manage our time.
- full communication with the actress; briefing our idea to her and explaining how the female character should act, speak and present herself throughout the opening sequence.

Here, we've pin-pointed a camera shot that we've improved on.
Lucy is applying her make-up in this scene, and clearly, she is not in the centre of the shot, the top of her head is cut off and the camera is tilted slightly - causing this shot to look ammiture and unproffessional.



Here, is our new shot of this scene. We can clearly see that improvements have been made, such as -
. we've highlighted the importance of her doing her make-up, but using an extreme close-up while she's applying her lipstick. - This is for multiple reasons, such as; the audience can infer that in the actresses mind, her concentration is purely on her lipstick - making the audience feel 'at one' with the actresses thoughts. Also, lips conote femininity and female dominance which is stereotypically made for the opposite sex's attention. This tells the audience a bit about the character herself and gives an insight on how women of that generation/class/status/maturity present themselves. Furthermore foreshadowing a result in romance, which is our aim in the opening sequence.
. we've used the tripod, which sets the camera at a flat, straight angle that looks proffessional.



This, like many other scenes in our filming, is evidence of improvement and that we (as individuals, and a group) are mastering the ways of proffessional filming. (camera angle/shot/movement/duration)

Experimenting with editing.

So today we wernt able to film, because our actress Lucy was unable to attend filming and the group itself was missing crucial equiptment that we needed whilst filming, one of these was the storyboard. Even though this was published on everyone's blogs; we needed the copy itself to take with us when filming, as computers were unavailable throughout filming.

In our screenplay, when Lucy checks her email, the camera will show her computer screen alerting her that she has '1 new message!'
Here we have created the screenshot that the audience will see, assuming that it was her own computer screen they were looking at :



Here, Teni was experimenting with screen credits and how our film title will appear, what it will look like and its general connotations.
'Lost & Found' :


We did this today simply to fill up time and get to grips with our editing techniques, despite this - our main focus is filming, and in order to obtain the extended deadline, we must stick to a strict schedule.

First Day Filming, Update no.1

PROBLEMS,
- Lack of organisation - actor/actress wasnt prepared.
                                  - original props were forgotten.
                                  - members of the group showed up late to filming.

- Lack of understanding - the group itself wasnt crystal clear on the idea/script/camera angles/general aim.
                                     - the actress misinterpreted her role/character.
                                     - how the tripod was to be correctly used.
                                     - how camera could be used to its full potential.

- Lack of communication - storyboard was not used as a guide for camera angles/shots/movement/dialogue.
                                       - idea's were made up in the heat of the moment, no discussion; plot wasnt clear.
                                       - random selection of roles; in the group.

REQUIREMENTS NEXT TIME...
- Organisation - have a set time for all members of the group to turn up, and (if necessary) have their immediate contact information available to reach them.
- frequently be in communication with actor/actress, keep all group members informed of updates/changes to the schedule.
- props are to be brought to attention to everyone, they are to be brought to lesson a few days in advance to filming, so that they are accessable at all times.
- having a set time-table of events, this includes times of filming, what we're filming, props used, characters involved and the estimated time that we should be finished.
- Understanding - before filming, and (prefferably) on a regular basis of filming, resort to the storyboard and plan, discuss any other possible options and film both - so that when we're editing, we can sort out the good footage from the bad and have a variety of options to chose from.
- sit down with the actor/actress and brief them on our plot, our representations, costume, script, screenplay and all the basic, so that they can fuly grasp their roles. Also have sessions briefly before filming with the actor/actress to be pristine on whats expected.
- each individual group member must master the methods of using equiptment correctly and effectively.
- each individual group member must adapt all roles to the best of their ability - filming, sound, editing, scripting.
- Communication - have the storyboard present throught all the filming and refer to it when experimenting with angles/movements and shots. - stick to the initial plan, any other ideas/suggestions are to be taken onboard and filmed also, then, when editing, we can differ the useful footage.
- select roles equally in the group and make sure that each person gets to experience all methods of filming, planning and editing.

Opening Sequence Storyboards (rough)