2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
Our media product is intended to be a teen drama with elements of crime in it.
Teen dramas tend to be filmed in locations such as park and the streets which is
what my group has done. In Kidulthood, there is a shot of three boys at the park
which is similar to a shot in my final product where there are three boys at the park.
All of the characters, in Kidulthood and my product are all black which enables us
to represent different groups of people and such. We decided that as teen drama’s
related to crime – especially knife crime or gun crime – usually are based on black
males characters, we also decided to do this as this is obviously effective.
3. The way characters talk are also similar between Kidulthood and my product. The
characters use a lot of slang and colloquial language. They talk really informally and very
‘street.’
In the first image –
Kidulthood – the main
character is introduced
in a shot alone which is
what I have also done
in my final product as
demonstrated in the
image below.
In the first image –
Kidulthood – three of
the main characters are
introduced together and
we see the relationship
between them which is
also the same case for
my product.
4. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The two characters which have been
circled in red are wearing hoodies and
actually have their hoodies up. This
represent young people.
Also people tend to have negative
stereotypes about young people in hoodies
– for example, they are trouble makers and
related to gangs and crime, etc – and the
fact that two of these characters are
dressed in a way which provokes these
stereotypes and in the film they are seen to
conform to these stereotypes. The
character on the right is seen to be asking
for a fight at one pint of the film, and the
character is involved in stabbing.
5. This shot portrays violence. The
character in the hoodie is seen to be
reaching into his bag and then later
we hear and see Harvey being
stabbed, so we know that the boy
was reaching for his knife.
Black males, especially ones dressed
in hoodies like this character usually
are stereotyped and are associated
with gangs, stabbings, crime, etc and
this character actually conforms to
these associations of negative
activities, especially as he is the one
that does the stabbing.
6. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and
why?
Pathé Pictures International is a distribution company which may distribute my film
and Cipher Films is a production company which could also help distribute my film.
This is because they have been involved in the distribution of films such as
Adulthood and Kidulthood , both which are teen dramas and are very similar films to
my product.
Examples of similarities between Kidulthood and my product.
Kidulthood My product
Similarity: 3 boys socialising at
the park
Similarity: violence and use of
knife for stabbing
7. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Initially we decided that our target audience would be both males and females aged
between 15-35 seeing as secondary research based on cinemagoers showed that
cinemas and watching films were most popular amongst people aged between 15-35.
However, we decided that our target audience are 15-21 year olds as they like watching
teen dramas as our primary research shows and so are more likely to be interested in
our film as it is a teen drama.
8. We also chose to have both males and
females as our target audience as our
research showed that both genders were
pretty much equal in terms of visiting the
cinema and watching films and the type of
films they liked to watch.
9. How did you attract/address your audience?
This character is seen to be dressed in a pair of Adidas
tracksuits, Adidas hoodie and trainers. Research showed
that sporty clothing was very popular amongst the target
audience.
This character is dressed
in a mac, leggings, ugg This character is seen
boots and a hat and again to be dressed in a
this is more of a casual smart casual outfit
look which is also which consists of blue
favoured by 15-21 year chino style trousers, a
olds. Ugg boots have also top and a jacket with
become more of a fashion a side bag. This sort
trend having a character of costume is also
dressed in more of the very popular amongst
latest fashion trends is the target audience.
more likely to attract the
audience.
These two male characters are dressed in jeans and
hoodies and this again appeals to the audience because
as primary research shows, the target audience like
sportier clothes such as hoodies and trainers more than
other styles of clothing,
10. The characters also use slang and colloquial language which appeals to the target
audience who are 15-20 year olds as they also use the same kind of language.
The characters are also seen to be hanging around at the park and socialising which is
what the target audience enjoy doing. Primary research shows how socialising is one of
the popular activities amongst 15-20 year olds.
11. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of
constructing this product?
There are many things to learn from planning, filming and editing your own product
and you are always learning something new as you experiment with different types
of technology – from a function of the camcorder you didn't know existed to how to
add effects in Final Cut.
Filming
For filming, the following equipment were used:
-Camcorder and tripod
-Microphone, boom pole and headphones
As we had already used equipment for filming before during the preliminary task, we
sort of knew how to operate the equipment. However, as the camera person, I learnt
new things about the camera such as how to put the lens back into which I didn't
know how to before.
12. Editing
During editing, we were able to use many different programmes:
Final Cut was used to construct the film
and to add transitions and effects.
As I had already used Final Cut very
briefly before during the editing process of
the preliminary task, I already knew how to
do the basic s such as adding in a
transition and how to take out unwanted
sections of footage, etc. For this main task,
I had the opportunity to experience Final
Cut better and learnt how to add more
effects and more transitions and learnt how
to export files from other sources such as
Motion to make my product more
interesting.
15. Motion was used to create titling for the product.
Exporting the
text!
16. Unlike Final Cut, Motion
allows you to make the
writing more interesting and
allows you to make the
titling more creative by
letting you add behaviour
and such – for example as
the image shows, you can
make the text grow/shrink in
size and have light rays
coming out of it.
17. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have
learnt in the progression to the full product?
In the preliminary task, I didn’t do much research or planning. In the main task, this
is one thing I have improved on and have included lots of evidence of research and
planning. I have looked at examples of existing products and done target audience
research (both primary and secondary). This part of the process allowed me to see
how the research changes your final idea.
In the preliminary task, my group weren’t very organised. Actors were only found
just before filming so for the main task, actors were found and notified a week before
filming was due to begin. Also for the preliminary task, the location of our film was
inside college and so for the main task, we used a couple of different location, such
as the park and the streets.
18. In the preliminary task, one mistake I made was that I didn’t plan each scene on a
different storyboard. This is one mistake I learnt from and completed in the main task.
One the first image, the two red circles indicate where the two scenes start.
Preliminary task
storyboard
Main task storyboard