Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)
My film opening challenges and uses the film opening or trailer of The boy in striped pyjamas as this was where i originally got my idea from, and i thought it would be a great creative idea to do something different, therefore aiming towards the foreign area of film. It uses the idea of a story with a young protagonist in the time of war. My film opening also uses the idea of persepolis, using the idea of subtitles to help the audience understand what is happening. Although it is not an animation, it still follows the same idea - also similar to Pans Labyrinth. I also studied the title order of independent films such as Napoleon Dynamite and used this order in my film opening sequence.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
my media project represents the social group of a fairly older audience, and features a young protagonist as the main character. The young girl as the main character represents growing up around the time of world war 2 and anyone who can relate to this would find this film interesting. The idea of the young girl moving to country to country represents the social group of anybody who has moved from one country to another and found this difficult, confusing and upsetting.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I think any media institution that is interested in foreign film, or any industry interested in the idea of european history. Perhaps the same industry that produced Pans Labyrinth or Persepolis. Maybe even a Russian industry, it does not have to be an english industry. I think they would distribute my media project as it is an in depth look at world war two and the idea behind it, from the perspective of a young girl as the main protagonist.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
My audience range could be between the ages of around 16 or anything above, really for anyone who enjoys european history. It could also represent the social group of not just an english audience, but a Russian too and perhaps even a German audience.It is an independent film so is not produced by big companies such as warner bros etc, and appeals to anybody who is interested in world history and real life drama.

How did you attract/address your audience?
The brief gave a suggestion of what audience we should aim for or to appeal to, but my brief did not give an audience so this was quite open in the way we appealed to our audiences. I thought a war film would be a good idea to appeal to older audiences and i liked the idea of combining my knowledge of history with my media. We attracted our audiences simly by how our film would be, the time and date set, the outfits worn and the actual idea of the film all contributed to what audience we were aiming to appeal for. I appealed to an older audience by making my pictures black and white and the film, as this sets the film in olden times such as WW2. I also appealed to a foreign audience by having Russian dialogue, with english subtitles, appealing to both a Russian and English audience - and maybe even German due to the fact the young protagonist moves to Germany.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt an extensive amount of knowledge of how films are made and what distinguishes one film from another when constructing my media project. I learnt the difference between independent films and international films, and how the titles should be arranged in both of these aspects. I learnt the difference of titles in a film trailer and a film opening, and also studied independent films and got the title orders from this to use in my sequence. I also learnt what to put into an opening sequence, not to give too much away but simultaneously try to explain the story in a mere 2 minute clip of the film. Ths was a lot harder in my opinion than making a film trailer but the experience i gained from this will help me extensively in future projects.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
From our first preliminary task, I did not have a lot of knowledge about continuity as we had only just started the course. Since then, i now know how continuity works after doing another continuity exercise and editing it all myself, it is quite hard to get it all correct. I have learnt when editing it it is best to edit in in certain 'action points' and shoot from both angles and then cut and put into a correct order. I did not know that continuity errors can be so easy to make, therefore it is essential to pay attention to small details such as nothing has changed during the sequence, for example if a door is open in one shot and closed in another, this i a continuity error and these errors are often easy to make.