Media Evaluation

1. In what ways does your media product use develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My media product follows the conventions of the genre social realism. Generally, this genre includes contemporary social issues which my short film does i.e. racism. The purpose of the short film is to educate, it does this by raising debate in the classroom and giving students ranging fro

m 15 to 18 ethical topics 

to discuss. Usually when a film is about social realism it is based on violence and crime. My short film to an extent uses these conventions but I have focused mainly on racial/ cultural issues and stereotypes. This is evident immediately as in the opening title of the s

hort film wereby the title of the film 'Viewpoints' has a Union Jack in the background. 

In emphasising these issues I am illuminating the purpose of my short film, to arise discussion in citizenship for teenagers. As a result the students will feel as if they can become more involved in the discussion as the film relates to them and their everyday lives. Opposing to a mainstream film, my short film was created on a low budget and therefore does challenge many of the conventions you would normally expect. It was filmed with a digital camera, giving it a rather gritty overall look as opposed to celluloid which would provide a much more surreal and glossy effect. However this seemed ideal for my short film as it was about social realism, based in a London school, the realistic and

gritty effect suited it well. Furthermore, classic social realism films usually have open ended narratives, for e

xample; in the famous ‘This is England’ when the protagonists’ future is left undetermined. I thought it best to follow this convention and leave the short film at a cliff hanger as this suited the purpose a lot better, not only leaving the students with something to talk about but also to create their own solutions in order to prevent these things happening in their everyday lives.

My magazine review uses ideas from the magazine ‘Empire’.

I opted for a colloquial mode of address due to the adolescent audience my magazine is aimed at. In usi

ng an exciting colour scheme and typography, I achieved the look of a ‘young’ magazine. The review also includes an advertisement for a competition, which also makes it more appealing to the target audience. My magazine consists of the classic conventions e.g. it follow the left to right layout, there is a main image and main text with a breakout box. This is because readers look for an easily accessible magazine therefore they opt for what looks familiar. I did not want to challenge magazine conventions as I felt that this would affect the audience. For my poster I again opted for a classic conventional style, with a main background image and title with actor information at the bottom. However my othe ancillary task (poster) does to an extent challenge the classic conventions of film posters as generally film posters consist of pictures of the stars that act in the film. This could not be the case for my film poster as the actors in the film are not well known established actors therefore; it would not be appealing to the audience if I had simply used pictures of the main characters as the main image for my poster. Generally, from viewing a film poster, one can gain an idea of what genre the film will take on. As my poster includes a picture of a block of flats I believe it achieves well the genre o

f social realism. Despite this, it is easy to assume from the poster that the film could be about something completely different, furthermore some of the themes that have been explored in the film for example racism, bullying, inequality and British culture are not evident in the poster. Initially I had planned to include the union jack in the poster to emphasise the theme of britishness, however having experimented with this, I decided it was best to use an image that conjured more suspense rather than being too obvious.

Overall, the short film and film poster challenged what would generally be expected due to the low budget, limited time and equipment available etc. The film poster however could not be developed much as readers would expect classic conventions and to be able to read with ease. Whereas it is understandable with the film and film poster as to why I have not followed mainstream conventions as my film did not contain Hollywood stars and due to the limitations I had in terms of software etc.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Throughout the three media products there is a common genre evident; social realism. The genre is mainly evident in the short film however it can be assumed by the fil

m poster. My magazine review highlights the purpose of my short film more so than the other media products as it states and develops the purpose and why I chose it etc. I believe that all three of my media products work well together as the magazine review confirms what the short film is actually aiming to achieve and the poster creates a more entertaining suspicion about the short film as it is not too blatantly obvious about what the film will contain. In terms of narrative it is pretty straightforward for the audience what the short film is about, the storyline is not complex therefore I do not think that it would be crucial for the audience to have read the film review in order to understand what the film is trying to achieve, however I feel as though the media products complement each other as on may not be fully aware of the purpose of the film having not read the poster. The themes explored in the short film show the gritty elements of Britain and thereby I though it was appropriate for the magazine review to follow a laid back and colloquial mode of address. The voice over in the short film is a somewhat common dialect and therefore to have a sophisticated magazine article would not have communicated the realistic genre effectively.

3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

When creating a media product audience feedback is crucial. Without it, you may not be aware of mistakes you have made or improvements you could make. You would also be unaware of wither or not your media product meets the expectations of its audience and if your target audience understand the narrative and the purpose of your film.

Having presented my short film to the target audience I was able to gather constructive criticism which helped to improve the product. One of the students claimed that; ‘there was one scene that was really dark, I couldn’t really see what was happening. This hindered my understanding of the film.’ F

rom this, my group and I were able to improve the short film by editing the ‘mugging’ scene and making it brighter. This was also the case for the last sene wer Mr Smith is viewing the fight on YouTube, again I was able to use editing to make the lighting in the sene clearer.

I presented my target audience with some initial ideas for my film poster; I was then told that using a photograph image for my poster as opposed to a copy right free internet image would add creativity and originality. It was also fedback that the poste

r was not clear and suggested that the image used was somewhat irrelavant to the narrative.

When I presented my target audience with another initial idea, I was told that ‘the main image could be a bit more entertaining, although it portrays the idea of British culture well, it is a bit boring.’ Taking this on board I decided that the idea of a union jack as the main image wasn’t a good idea this then lead on to the new and current poster including the image of the block of flats which I believe builds more suspense about the film. The final film poster as a finished product met the expectations of my target audience, it was satisfying to know thatI had produced something successful on the basis of their feedback.

I also decided to encorporate a colour scheme on my film review page after being told, 'magazines tend to use one or two colours throughout an article as opposed to many colours'. As a result I followed a colour scheme of blue and red which also emphasised the British theme which runs throughout my main product and ancillary texts. After having received feedback from my target audience I was happy to make the changes I made to my media products as they became more suited to their target audience. I disagreed with some of my audience feedback and felt as though some ideas that were generate

d were personal to one individual as opposed to being a collective idea, however some of my audience feedback I did agree with, in particular the ones I have mentioned above. I found them helpful and useful in improving my course work. I also trusted the feedback as it was given by the age group in which my media products are aimed at therefore they were able to state what they expected which helped in terms of meeting the requirements of the target audience. I believe that the changes I made in response to the feedback were good and did improve my work. Overall I found the process of gathering feedback from my target audience very helpful.

4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
In the planning stages of my coursework, I mainly used the internet. This was very useful when it came to researching about classic conventions of film, film posters and film magazines. I also used my blog to post up all the ideas that I had. I was able to import pictures and hyperlinks into my blog in order to expand on my research I was also able to scan initial ideas and storyboards to expand on the ex

planations of my ideas. I was able to use YouTube to provide a hyperlink and Google to include copyright free images on my blog. During the production of my short film I was able to use a DV camera to record my footage which I then uploaded onto a laptop to edit my footage. The camera was also useful for taking photographs which could then be uploaded onto my blog. With software such as I movie I could edit the footage to add in transitions and sounds were necessary. In creating the magazine review page I used the programme pages which allowed me to achieve the appearance of a magazine article. The software enabled me to experiment with different layouts and fonts until I found what best suited the themes of my media products. I was able to add text were necessary i.e. breakout box, strap line etc and I could easily move images around.

The overall look of my media products makes it evident that there were certain limitations in the technology available. An

 example of this is the voice over in the short film which is not as clear and concise as it should have been. This was due to the DV camera that I was provided with to create the short film, as the microphone was of a very low quality it was very difficult to ensure that the audio was right for the scene being filmed as certain ambient sounds were picked up i.e. the wind which would muffle the voices of the actors. 

This put me at a disadvantage as the film seemed of a very low quality making it hard for the audience to understand it fully as the sound was unclear. This problem was eventually overcome as I then had to re-record a voiceover and import it over the film 

 footage.  It was very hard to get the audio and the footage on screen to perfectly match together but after experimenting with it as a team we managed to do it. The technology used affected a lot of aspects of the coursework as it limited many creative ideas that were initially posed for the short film. The setting of the film is my school, which is not the most entertaining setting that my group suggested however it would have been hard to film in a public place without causing a disturbance and also picking up unwanted background noise. Although the gritty effect of the short film was intentional, the lack of lighting became an issue when it came to filming a scene in the dark. Originally having filmed the s

cene and viewing it I felt as though I had a big problem as the lighting was extremely bad, you could just about see what was happening. As a solution I was going to re film the scene however I was able to use I movie to add some light into the scene, as a result making it more visible to the audience. 

The fact that I was able to use non-linear editing software was good as it is much more advanced than linear. This enabled me to edit as I went along as opposed to having to start from the beginning every time something needed to be cut or changed. As a result I was able to film things were and how I wanted which saved a lot of time as if I had to film the footage in order, it would have taken a lot more time and effort. As I was able to film all the scenes that were in the school building at the same time and then all the scenes that weren’t in the school building it was convenient. Then, using the non-linear editing software I was able to re-arrange the footage as I wanted. My group and I decided that the internet would be a big part of our film with the theme of cyber bullying. With access to the internet we were able to import the ‘mugging’ scene onto the social n

etworking website, YouTube and bring this into our film at the end. This decision was I believe an effective one as it raises awareness about those being cyber bullied and the dangers o

f what is being posted on the internet amongst teenagers in today’s society.

During the evaluation stages of my coursework, 

again the internet was mainly used to upload pictures onto my blog. YouTube was also used to provide the link to my short film. 

I was able to use screenshots of my film to provide image to further develop the text. Imovie enabled me to break down the senes of my short film and include them in my evaluation were I felt necessary.