Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

The main aim of the preliminary task was to become familiar with continuity and the 180 degree rule. It was also a good oppurtunity to gain more expereince in camera work, editing, and getting a good performance out of the actors. The preliminary video was only a short peice and only ivolved basic camera work and a small variety of shots.

In my preliminary, I used very basic editing skills when editing the footage. After watching the preliminary weeks later, I realised that when it came to editing my final piece, I needed to inlcude many special effects when editing to make it look more professional and more complex! In my final piece, I used many effects such as cross dissolve, fade to white and other transitions.

My preliminary video had a very limited variety of shots as it mainly consisted of close ups. Although close up shots is great to show a chatacter's features and emotions, I realised that my final piece needed to have a much bigger variety of shots in it. In my final peice, there are establishing shots, close ups, cut away shots, sceneray shots, mid-disatnce, long distance and many more. This made it a more interesting watch as the whole peice didnt consist of one type of shot.

My final peice contained A LOT more mise-en-scene than my preliminary video. The preliminary video had a very limited amount, if not any mise-en-scence what so ever.. so I realised that in my final piece I definitely needed to change that and thats exactly what I did - I PACKED it with the good old mise-en-scence. Some of the mise-en-scene in my final peice included the shot under the tunnel where Niall walks from the dark into the light, signifying how he's walking into a new life which will give him hope. I learnt that mise-en-scene is definitely one of the most, if not the most, important ingredient when making a film to create the certain mood you're looking for!





In my preliminary, I discovered that sound and music is a major contributor to setting the mood of the piece. The soundtrack in the prelimanry completley transformed the video from being a poor watch.. to a very good watch! The soundtrack worked perfectly with the video as is set the mood to just how i wanted it to be. This made me realise that i needed to do the same in my final peice. As I was aware that the soundtrack was such an important element of the 2 minute opening, I spent a lot of time trying to find the perfect song. I finally found a cover of the Coldplay song 'Trouble' performed by the unsigned band Obadiah Parker. The song fit the opening perectly and it created the exact mood we were hoping for.

How did you attract/address your audience?

In order to address an audience, first I needed to find out exactly what that audience is, and to do that I needed to place the film within a genre. This was more difficult than expected as the film idea had elements of romance, adventure and possible comedy. This turned out to be an advantage as it allowed me to attract a wider audience.

The opening of the film is very much centered around Niall leaving home and his dysfunctional relationship with his girlfriend. I believe the ethos of this opening is what would attract teenage couples to come and see the film. Another main audience I wanted to attract and later address was teenage boys as they have the potential with this opening to relate to what Niall is going through. Every teenage boy can relate to the feeling of wanting independence, getting into trouble, and experiencing different situations, characters and environments for the first time. This opening sequence was addressing those teenage boys directly.



Although the film is about a 17 year old boy and his gritty journey to find his way, and could be easily compared with gritty teen dramas like Skins; I think the innocence of the opening (the slow start, the mystery behind where he's going, the location shots, etc.) would be something that may attract older viewers who may watch the film and see themselves 10, 20, 30 years previous and symmpathise with what he's going through.

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

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Specialising in UK independant films, Momentum Pictures is a brand of Alliance Films. It has become one of the leading UK distributors of independant films, releasing around 20 films per year. Successful films that have been distributed in the past by Momentum Pictures include Lost in Translation and P.S. I Love You. It also ditributed the film The King's Speach which won Oscars in 2011 which means my film would be in VERY good hands. The company has recently been purchased by Paramount Pictures, which is obviously a globally well known and successful media institution.

This would be the perfect media instiution to distribute my product as it is known for specialising in UK independant films and thats exactly what my movie is. My film also has a very similar target audience to P.S. I Love You, as there is a lot of romance involved and its aimed at the couples market,  which was very successful being distributed my Momentm Pictures.

Also, BBC films and Film4 would be good as they are both very interesting in making UK youth movies and thats exactly what my film is! Similar to the programme Waterloo Road (BBC), my film is a product that all teenagers can relate to so i'm sure BBC films would show interest in distributing my Product.

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

During the process of conducting research into areas such as audience research, editing methods, mise-en-scene, costume design, music, original ideas and location research, the internet was my main source of gathering information.  

The HD camera I used to shoot my two minute opening was easy to use and produced high quality, high definition footage. Having never used a video camera before besides the odd family home video, getting to grasp with keeping the camera steady and using the tripod when possible was something I needed to learn in order to make sure my piece didn't look amateurish and unprofessional. Learning about camera angles, and therefore how to position the camera, possibly using the zoom feature on the camera was another thing that through trial and error I quickly picked up on what did and didn't look good. This enabled me to try and attempt different and maybe more adventurous shots. 

When it came to editing the software I used to edit my piece was iMovie. Having never edited before I struggled at first to use the software but having practised doing my preliminary task I found using it when editing Strange World was easy and useful. With iMovie I could cut and trim clips to the length I wanted them, add titles, create various transitions, import music, and piece little elements together to design my final cut opening two minutes. Although iMovie was easy to use and quick to pick up which was great for initial use, as I developed my skills and wanted to do more, I found extra professional tools were lacking and perhaps should have used another editing software.


To complete my answer to one of my other evaluation questions I put freeze frames into certain frames and then added audio clips of myself talking about and evaluating that particular shot in the opening, and saying how it used, developed or challenged forms and conventions of real media products. To record myself speaking I used a recording application on my phone as it was clear and easy to use, then uploaded the recordings from my phone onto my home computer, which I then converted to a format that was compatible with iMovie, and added the short recordings in over the top of my film. 

Who would be the audience for your media product?

I orginally decided that the target audience would be teenagers. This is because I found out in my initial research that teenagers like to watch films where the character is of a similar age so they can try and relate to him. The main character in my film, Niall Fletcher, is 17 years of age so I was targetting this film at a similar age.

Also, reserach shows that 16-30 year olds are the most frequent cinema goers. Because of this, I wanted to aim the film at people within this age bracket to make sure I took advantage of the fact that they go to the cinema most often.

As well as teenagers being the target audeince for my product, I also aimed the film towards couples. This is because couples is a lucrative market in the cinema industry. At the start of the film, Niall is depressed about his long term relationship with his girlfriend coming to an end. The element of romace in the film will appeal to couples and younger teenage girls looking for love!

I also wanted this film to be an inspiration to teenagers, or anyone who just wants an escape from their everday life. This film shows people that there's nothing stopping people from going out into the real world and acheiving something new. Teenagers are constantly trying to understand who they are and what they desire to do and achieve. This is something that is reflected in the film (the idea that Niall can run away from home and start a life of his own, on his own).

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The main character, Niall is the perfect example of a teenager. He wants freedom, to live by his own authority, to do what he wants, to go where he likes and to do things his way. These characteristics of individuality are ones that can be seen in all teenagers and the social group as a whole.

Teenagers are constantly trying to understand who they are and what they desire to do and achieve. This is something that is reflected in the film (the idea that Niall can run away from home and start a life of his own, on his own). Teenagers often to music as a way of trying something new and different. Something Tangible that they can work with a mold to express themselves. This is one of the main reasons we decided to have Niall as an aspiring guitar player, and with very few possessions his guitar is obviously something very important to him. This enabled us to use the guitar as a clear symbol that represents this individuality. He's casually dressed in what he feels comfortable in (he wears what he likes, when he likes).

When thinking about the kind of teenager and social group Niall represents, I realised that the character we've created is actually very similar to the Robbie, a character in the recent film of the book, The War of the Worlds. Robbie is an adolescent boy around the same age as Niall who doesn't get on with his father and wants to get away and live his own life. He dresses similar to Niall and displays an optimistic view on life.

I believe teenagers, with some exceptions, like to dress themselves in a certain way that they wish other people to view them in. Some teenagers dress brightly and flamboyantly with lots of colours and different styles. Others do the exact opposite and choose darker, plainer clothes possibly because they're trying to keep their head low. This is the exact way I wanted my audience to view Niall. He's not noticed by others and he makes his journey from his house to the park because that's precisely what he wants! he doesn't want attention; he just wants to start a new, and do his own thing.

Teenagers are complicated, misunderstood, perplex beings which you would imagine would be very hard to translate on screen, but actually it allows for me to represent my character in practically any shape or form due to the diversity of the social group.

Strange World - Final Cut