The document provides an evaluation of the student's media production project. It discusses various technical and creative aspects of constructing the opening to a short film, including use of titles, mise-en-scene, camerawork, editing, sound, and character development. The student learned key skills like blogging, camera operation, and video editing software. Organization and planning improved from the preliminary task. Overall the project helped develop the student's understanding of film production.

1. AS Media Studies
G321 Foundation Production
Evaluation
Daisy Nicholls

2. Question one- In what way does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
Titles:
What we are trying to show the audience is that our
films going to be a social realist drama genre.
We have gone for the monochrome look throughout
our titles as that gives it an edgy/dark look. Our
titles are sharp edged and bold, like they are almost
shouting at you- which we made in a graffiti
maker, we thought this was appropriate because the
graffiti is present in a lot of films to do with social
realist, as they are usually shot on estates that are
run down or based in naturalistic scenery.

3. •This is our opening shot
Use of Flashforward: to our film opening. We
started with a flash
forward so that this will
have the effect where it
will draw the audience in
to watching the rest of the
film.
•We went for the more
dramatic image for the
flash forward opening, so
that the audience know
straight away that this
film is dealing with
serious issues.
Inspiration
American beauty was our inspiration
as it is a drama that is set in the
present, which also begins with a
flash-forward, which gives us an idea
of the story genre and story line that we
will be faced with.

4. Mise en scene:
•For our film opening we
used very naturalistic/basic
Mise en scene.
• As our film genre is social
realist, we decided to set in
in basic settings as it would
make it more realistic to real
life scenarios.
This shows our
Inspiration
naturalistic interior to For our inspiration we used the film train spotting,
our film opening, showing as that uses very naturalistic mise en scene and also
run down rough areas. We used our inspiration to
it is not a glamorous shoot in poles lane as that is quite rough and scummy
location and it is just a looking, as we used an ordinary house to not
symbolise ‘glam’.
normal basic house.

5. Use of Sound:
Our Music we ended up using is called
‘The Third Place’, we chose this because it
gave an edgy feel to our film opening,
which created a high amount of suspense
and tension to our audience.
Originally we filmed Bethan singing ‘ The
A team’ by Ed Sheran, After converting it
into our video we realised that this music
was not suitable, as it was to up beat. And
also was sung a little flat at times.
Therefore we come across this soundtrack
which we thought was appropriate in
building tension.

6. Question Two – How does your media product
represent certain social groups? Explain who your
Characterisation of Poppy: main characters are.
For our characterisation we wanted
to go for lower class and rough
looking. As the main character is a
prostitute our main focus was on her,
making her look like a stereotypical
prostitute ,wearing revealing clothes
and keeping to black and white
colours.
Sympathise - We aim for the audience to sympathise
with Poppy as she is the victim. We did this by Poppy
being the only voiceover and not having the murderer
speak at all, to get the audience on her side.
‘Pretty women’ however
was completely opposite
to our idea of a
stereotypical prostitute.
Julia Roberts is made up
to be a very Hollywood
view of what prostitutes
look like, and this was
Inspiration not the route we wanted
For our inspiration we used ‘ London to to go down. We wanted
Brighton’. We thought this was a very the more run down, lower
class look.
appropriate film to look at, as Kelly is a
very stereotypical prostitute, who looks
rough and very lower class .We used very
similar clothing style to her.

7. Characterisation of the murderer:
For the characterisation of the
murderer, we wanted to give
him the lower class/rough
look.
We achieved this by giving
him the hoodie, the cap and
also the cigarette to empathise
the ‘bad’ look.
Inspiration: Our inspiration for the characterisation of the murderer was inspired by London to Brighton’s Derek.
He is the powerful character in the film and is the pimp and has control over the prostitutes. We used him as our
inspiration because Harry has control over Poppy and is the bad guy in our film opening.

8. Question Three – What kind of media
institution might distribute your media
product and why?
If a film distribution company was to back our film, I think
that Channel 4 films would put fundraising into our film and
show it on their channel. I feel this because Channel four do
films similar to ours in genres being social realist and serious
dramas.
Our film would be entitled to The national
Lottery funding by first light, which give This is England 86’ is a channel four series
money to first starter film companies that production which is similar to our film opening,
have just started out in Film making. As we are British and in ways being that it is a social realist drama
filmed in Britain, with a British director, this also entitles us which deals with serious issues.
to funding from the Lottery.
Art house Cinema – If our film was to be
screened in cinemas, I feel that it would be
exhibited in art house cinema as it has the
absence of Special effects, upbeat storylines
and famous actors, which draw people into
going into multiplex cinemas. Our film is
independent and low budget, therefore would
be shown in Local art house cinemas.

9. Question four-Who would be the
audience for your product?
Classification-The age rating for our film would be a 15.
We decided this because of the drug and sex content it holds,
and also the appearance of violence throughout our film
opening. Which would not be suitable for under 15’s.
Target Gender -Our film opening would be
targeted at both genders, due to the social realist
genre, that deals with serious issues that would
grip both male and females. Although the
genders may have different views of the films
storyline, i.e. who to sympathise with etc.
I think the event that people would go to watch
this would maybe be a date or a girls/boys night
out.
The main audience to be attracted to watch our
film would be people who have previously
watched social realist dramas, such as London
to Brighton, Shifty and Trainspotting, As these
films all involve content unsuitable for under
15’s as it involves a high level of sex,
crime/violence and drugs. These three films also
deal with serious issues which are hard
watching, just like our film Honeybear, it deals
with serious issues.

10. Question five – How did you
attract/address your audience?
Music – Our music has a big effect on the mood and
feelings of the viewers. The tense and suspicious
atmosphere the music creates makes the viewers feel on the
edge and grips them into the film, as the music clearly
insinuates something bad is coming up.
Emotional Appeal – Our film opening has emotional appeal to the audience, due to
the fact that it deals with serious issues that involve a hard hit to the audience. This
makes it emotional to the audience because of the serious issues it deals with, causes
them to sympathise with various characters and to engage with what they are
feeling.
Camera Style – In our film we have used handheld cameras, to make it seem more
realistic and to create more tension and suspense.
We got our inspiration from Paranormal activity, as they have used handheld
cameras throughout all three of their films, and have successfully created thrills
and tension throughout.

11. Question six -What technical skills have you learnt and
how has your understanding of the film production
developed during the process of constructing this
Blogging product?
Since the start of our film production, we have
all learnt how to blog about our updates on the
production and everything that is happening
with them. Involving pictures, comments, posts,
videos, hyperlinks and animatics.
•I have learnt how firstly to create a blog, we
used www.blogger.com as it is simple and easy
to use and create a blog.
•I also learnt to upload photographs from our
production onto the blog. These photographs
include pictures that we took on set shooting and
photographs of pieces of important paper that
•We have also learnt how to upload videos and
everybody in the group need to see.
slide share PowerPoint's. On our blogs we
• Every time we did something to do with our
have our first and second cuts of our film
production, we done an update on our
opening and also title research PowerPoint
individual blogs. Whether it being things such
using a slide share software.
as; music choice to evaluations of our shoots.
• Another thing we have learnt to do is to put
• We also learnt how to upload animatics. By
hyperlinks on our blogs to film extracts. We use
using these it helps give a good portrayal of
these because then it gives more of an idea of
what happened on our shoots as we are showing
the inspiration we have used and included in
a huge range of photographs.
our film opening.

12. Camera Skills Since starting the production I have learnt how
to use the handheld cameras properly. This is
because we used a handheld camera throughout
the production and we used our inspiration
from paranormal activity sequel films.
•I have learnt how to use the zoom on the
camera’s and correct camera angles. We learnt
properly what camera angles proper names are,
how to indentify them and what correct way
there is to use them when shooting a shot. We
•I also learnt how to use the boom microphone
bared the camera angles in mind when
when doing our production, as some of our
shooting our production.
filming involved sound, therefore we wanted it to
•We also learnt how to upload our videos from
be clear, so we added the boom microphone into
the camera. At first I felt nervous when having
the slot on the camera. This involved me holding
to do this part, as I was never quite sure how to
the camera on the boom pole as close to the
actually do it and needed help. But eventually I
subject as I could without getting it in shot. This
managed to learn how to do it, it involves the
then enabled us to get clear and loud speech in
black mains lead with the number that matches
our production.
up to the camera, and also the usb lead to
Our Camera Shots upload them onto the computer ready to edit.
Extreme close up Long shot Medium Close Up

13. For our production, Premier was a big part of it, as it was our
Editing editing software we used to put our video together and what we
used to tweak our production.
• Premier was the hardest thing for me your documents to find the attachments wanted. This
whilst doing our production. I found then goes into your imports at the left hand side of
editing the hardest part as I found premier Premier.
very complicated, and that there was a lot • We also learnt how to do special effects in our
to remember which I struggled with quite a production, by using things such as cross fades and
bit and needed more guidance on. Only fade to black to make it look more visually interesting.
towards the end of the making I got the •In our productions we also used captions to add the
hang of things. names of the actors, directors and myself and
• We learnt how to import still images into Shaunagh’s name and candidate numbers. This was
the editing line and also how to edit in simple and easily done, once adding the captions you
sounds. You do this in the same way by added it into the editing line and then they will appear
going onto file- import and then going onto in your production.

14. In the time we have been making our films,
Understanding of I think we all learnt the importance of
how films are made who is involved in making films and all of
the other parts that go into the making
and preparation of the film.
Director – They control a film's artistic and dramatic aspects, while guiding
the technical crew and actors. Whilst going through the production of our
film, we learnt the importance of the directors job. As once we shot in poles
lane without our director present, this didn’t turn out well as then we found
out we did things wrong; due to not having our director present to direct us.
We learnt from our mistakes after this shoot, and continued our filming and
Importance of location- We learnt made sure that every time we had our director Nicola present with us.
that our locations were of
importance in our film, as the mise Production – When we first started
en scene is the atmosphere creator. producing our film, we all did a storyboard
Such as poles lane creates a sense of of our idea as a group and then photocopied
eeriness, and Poppy's bedroom mise it so we all had a copy. This included the
en scene creates the atmosphere of shots, the camera angles and what the actor/
dark and gloom, which gives the actress has to do in the shot. This helped us
sense of something being wrong and because when it come to actually shooting it
portrays tension to the audience. we knew exactly what we was doing, which
saved us time in the long run. It also
involved the time we shot
Planning/Organisation - Planning and organisation is a key importance
when producing a film. Therefore we created a call sheet at every shoot we
went on, this involved contact numbers for everybody, times of meeting/where
and what each member of the group has to bring along to include in the film
– props, camera equipment etc. We also involved health and safety, such as
making sure there is no trailing leads, obstructing doorways and suitable
shoes and clothing for all weather conditions.

15. Question seven –Looking back at your preliminary task,
what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to
the main product?
Organisation – I feel that our organisation from when we did our
preliminary has progressed whilst doing our production as I have
learnt the importance of planning. Although we did a storyboard
so we knew exactly what we was doing when filming, we didn’t do
a call sheet, therefor it made it a bit unorganised as we wasn’t sure
of what we needed to bring prop wise etc. To avoid pitfalls when
doing our production, we made our storyboard a lot more detailed
with timings and camera angles and used a detailed call sheet
which informed the group exactly everything we all needed to
know. This taught me that the planning of the production was very
important to our success.
What we learnt from the Preliminary task and Editing – Since doing our preliminary task I feel
kept in mind for coursework - that I have gained more confidence on using
In our preliminary task we made a few premier software to edit our production. Before now
mistakes which we wasn’t happy with. I have never used premier and now I feel that I have
•Eye line match did not look correct basic knowledge on the tools on the software. Such
•Match on action was not right as using the razor tool to cut off bits of unwanted
•180 degree rule was not obtained video shots. When doing the preliminary task I feel
Therefore when doing our honeybear film that I struggled a lot using premier and relied a lot
production we made sure we did not repeat on my group to do most of the editing, as I didn’t
these mistakes, as they had a big influence on feel confident enough to put our groups work into
our first task. my hands.