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

I think I have greatly improved since the preliminary task back in September, my knowledge of the film industry and of the softwares used has increased immensely. I now know how to use the cameras to their full extent and to uses the softwares to my advantage without having to create and work harder with camera shots compared to the issues in the preliminary.

   

During the pre-production stage of the preliminary task it was much harder to construct the opening such as shots and an initial bases idea, compared to the final product where we has the boost of using a book yet we were able to come up with shots that created more of an opening theme such as hidden shots that created the enigma. Very little thought went into character bases or location for the task due to the school class room which is meant to be represented as a restaurant but undoubtedly fails this. The location compared to the real task is a perfect location for the theme of the book and created a bedroom feel as it was shot in an attic bedroom therefore coincided and created a real feel.  

Overall very little planning was put into the preliminary as the real task took many more weeks to plan, shoot and edit the final cut which gave us the ability to produces a piece of work that i am very proud off and it is leaps and bound stronger than our first try. 

Evaluation- what have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout the process of making our film opening I learnt a lot about technologies such as Final Cut Pro and Colour, as well as the cameras themselves. For example, with the Canon EOS 550D cameras I learnt that in order to achieve an extreme-close-up you use the 75mm and for a wide a 35mm is required – the middle/mid-shot being 55mm.  Similarly, discovering Final Cut Pro became the most easiest part for me as i enjoyed it thoroughly and once we learnt the basic tools such as the ‘Razor Tool’ for a straight cut, is was easier to use the software. 

In Final Cut Pro we had a large struggle with sound throughout our piece due to the complications of the typing sound and correctly  matching it with his fingers hitting the keys. Although this we spent many ours fixing and timing the sounds that it achieved a great success and doing so help us learn more aspects of the software and deeper ways to create better effects.  The Colour software was actually fairly easy to use, what caused the most problems was actually transferring it back to Final Cut Pro since we did not understand that we had to ‘render’ the whole completed sequence in order to send it back to Final Cut Pro since the files could not be read properly. Yet once we got to grips with this we were able to create a great colour aspect by increasing the amount of blue to give more of a depressing feel and adding to the ambiance of the piece. 

Evaluation- who would be the audience for your media product? How did you attract/address your audience?

I think our main audience for our film opening would be teenagers aged 16-18 o the the relation with the character and the themes that are apparent in the book and the opening. Due to the themes representing teenage social issues such as depression and bullying our group believed that this was the appropriate age group to place this ruling too. In terms of audience being of a global range, I do not think this is the case since the main plot-line is a school shooting which is quite a niche subject matter in America. Also, since it is set in America with music, objects associated with the place and so therefore may not attract audiences globally. despite the film not being classified as a 'British film' due to most of the themes and set american  based yet the film having a complete British cast a filmed in america most of the attributes to it relate to Britain   

In this way, our film opening may be limited in its audience globally but should appeal to teenagers aged 16-18. According to the BBFC classification for film, our film would most likely receive a '15' certificate. This is due to the themes of drugs and perhaps later scenes of the school shooting and suicide being prohibited in a '12'.

what might be seen in a 15 rated film?

1.   strong violence
2.  frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***').
3.   portrayals of sexual activity
4.   strong verbal references to sex
5.   sexual nudity
6.   brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
7.   discriminatory language or behaviour
8.   drug taking

Evaluation- what kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

We believe that our film opening with most likely be distributed through media platforms such as social media and large online sites such as youtube or Vimeo since it is accessible by everyone with internet connections. This also cost almost nothing instead of perhaps reaching for a cinema to distribute. We will be able to use social media to promote our film, places such as twitter and facebook to market our opening. With a small budget behind the film it would almost be impossible to pay large quantities of money out to distribution companies. I do believe that social media is our strongest ability to market our film as it is the site's most used by the audience age that we are targeting at and is very popular, especially things such as twitter where we c an get our film trending and therefore get a more spread of views and have the accessibility to get our information across the globe due to the speed and efficiency of social media.

With perhaps the 'death' of cinema as we know it, online media forms are becoming much more popular sites such as Netflix and amazon prime are skyrocketing in use and have hundred of thousands subscribes across the world. Perhaps if our film gained enough popularity we may be able to sell to such companies as they are very reliant in taking independent films on to their sites and therefore increase our views and through word of mouth gain admiration from views which can lead to a larger gain in money increase.
     

Evaluation- how does your media product represent particular social groups?

Social Groups are present throughout our film opening, such as age and gender. Firstly, the main character is present very strongly as a stereotypical teenager main traits such as clothing and the set present this. Due to the timestamp of 12;19 as represented by the clock and due to the lighting and the darkness it coincides that it may be past midnight which is seen to be a teenager ideal as this is seen to be a structure that they abide to. Although the content is dark on the typed letter suggesting suicidal thought, this connotes a teenage life as only of the largest killers of teenagers is suicide there can be relatable as many teenagers in the 21st century have seen throughout media and perhaps had a close relation to this.

Peter also is a very stereotypical teenager due to his clothing. As he is seen to wear older clothes it is apparent that he is at the older end of teenage hood due to; skinny jeans, a black t-shirt and Nike trainers. This is perhaps him trying to be normal and to fit in although as presented through out the clip there seems to be links of non-conformist ideas of teenage hood. 
   
Peter is also aged 17 and so does conform to the stereotype of being 'mis-understood' by adults since his character shuts himself away in his attic room. The attic room is also quite symbolic of Peter feeling closed off from society and kept out of sight, up in a small room. Which may link to his depression and feelings of anxiety. 

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

My groups and I's film opening uses many adaptations of the conventions of film openings, to begin our clip begins with a panning shot with a shot of the protagonists back, this presents a sense of enigma as the audience face many questions to do with the boy whose identity is yet to be reviled to create many questions about the clip. We also created an aspect of character throughout the opening. the use of Mise-en-scene linked with a teenage boy such as; books, films and different food types normally related to the younger generation. This lets us reveal him gradually to the audience therefore also enhancing the enigma. The certain types of dvds and books create a 'nerdy' atmosphere which applies to perhaps his personality and due to over sound of music can secure this. Character is also established through his clothing. We incorporated a stereotypical teenager look such as a black t-shirt, jeans and glasses.

We also established a sense of time and location, to begin there is a shot of a alarm clock which present the time to be 12:19 to coincide with the title of 'nineteen minutes'. This conforms to the usual conventions of a film opening as it present the time. Lastly we established location by using the mise-en-scene. By this we used american associated sweets such as Hershey's and Baby Ruth. But overall we used an end sequence that revealed the actual location to the audience and is used to further on the story, it shows 'Sterling, March 6 2007'. Therefore i believe that we established all conventions of a film opening.