Main Task - Evaluation Video

For the 7 evaluation questions we have decided to make a video of us answering all 7 question.

Main Task - Evaluation

Who would be the target audience for your production?

As our media production is a Romantic Comedy we feel that it is more directed at females aged about 15-30. This is because in our film, we have a young main character who finds herself in a very tricky situation to do with marriage. We feel this age group is linked with marriage because from about the age of 15, girls have already seen fairy tales with Prince Charming and are already thinking about what their perfect man would be like and at this age they would have probably started to watch Rom-Coms. And the age group ends at around 30 because for the first time in years this is the average age that women are waiting to get married.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Our film opens with a very well known song by a popular artist, Rihanna. We used her song 'We Found Love' ft. Calvin Harris. We chose this song because we thought it fitted well with the partying scene because of it the very catchy tune it possesses. The song also has a slow build up which fits in with the 'drinking scene', and a 'drop' when the chorus kicks in which synchronizes with the opening scene of the partying. Also our opening shot attracts the audience because it is an unusual shot from underneath the glass so you can see the drink being poured in. This instantly grips the audience and makes them want to watch on. The nature of the opening scene is very fast paced so it keeps the audience on the edge of their seats waiting to know what happens next. After the party scene, the main character wakes up in a strangers bed. The target audience immediately assume what is going to happen. This is because our film follows a lot of codes and conventions of rom-com's.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We believe that our film represents everyday working class women in society. This is because hen nights are portrayed as a fun night of drinking and partying with friends where women dress up in quite inappropriate clothing with L plates, feather boas, bunny ears, garter's and a sash and get very very drunk to celebrate the last moments of freedom. This is not what middle class or upper class women would generally do. They are more likely to go to a high end restaurant for a meal with family members and friends and dress very smart and sophisticated.

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

From the process of constructing our product we have developed a knowledge of how to use many different programmes on the Apple Mac's. Programmes including:

• iMovie – We used this to import all of our video clips and to piece all the clips together. We learnt how to edit and use many of the different techniques found on iMovie.
• Final Cut – This program was used to do the final editing and by doing this we learnt how to render and export or film.
• Audacity – Audacity was used so we could create our own version of Rihanna – We found love ft. Calvin Harris. Techniques used in this were changing the tempo and echoing the song. We also had to cut the song very precisely, to the millisecond.
• iPhoto - iPhoto is a photo storing, importing and exporting software which we used to import our storyboard photo's to.
• Photo Booth – Photo booth is the program we used to take the photos of our storyboards.
  
  
  We also visited different web pages to complete tasks to help with our research and to blog our progress. Web pages we visited are:

• Blogger – This was used to track/ record our progress. It contains all of our research we did to help with our film.
• Google – We used this search engine all the time! It was very useful and helped us find out everything we needed.
• Youtube – Youtube was used for uploading our preliminary task, animatics and our final film opening. It also helped with our research when getting inspiration from other videos.
• Prezi – We used Prezi to make a presentation to pitch to our teacher for her to determine from our storyboards weather we were able to go ahead with making and filming our opening.
• IMDb - This website was used a lot to find out about all of the actors, actresses and films we needed to research and be inspired by.

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

There are many rules when making a Rom-Com film, for example:

• The main character is in a romantic pursuit
• The Hero has a desire that conflicts the love pursuit
• Concentrate on events leading up to the romance, but not so much on the romance itself
• Show the lover belong together, even against all odds
• Include a happy ending

We have followed most of these codes and conventions, however we have only made the opening 2 minutes of our film, so some of them can not be shown. For example:

• Our main character IS in a romantic pursuit.
• There IS a hero in our film, however this event has not yet been shown as it is at the end of the film.
• We have concentrated on the events leading up to the romance (wedding), because the wedding is at the very end. The rest of the film would be other events leading up to it.
• Yes, our ending is happy!

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

We believe that Universal Studios would distribute our film because they have produced many many many many many romantic comedies in their time. They are a very well-known and VERY successful institution. Universal would distribute our film because it falls into a genre that they have been very successful with. Another reason they would distribute our film is to make money.

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

Our preliminary task was very helpful when it came round to making our final film. It gave us an insight on how to storyboard, edit, film using the camera's and how to direct the actors. Although it was only about 30 seconds long, it was almost like a practise run before the real thing. In my opinion, our preliminary task was very good, the continuity editing was perfect, and the camera shots were excellent, but the best part of it was the editing. This really topped it off and made it look very professional. We used iMovie to edit our preliminary task. This helped us when editing our final film because before hand, we didn't have a clue how to work any of the programme's on the mac's. After using them a few times, we got the hang of it and the editing process got easier. Our final films editing was very good after learning how to do it.

Main Task - Final Film

Our final film... Hope you enjoy!

Main Task - Filming Schedule

We have had the opportunity to use one of the school cameras and film over the Christmas holidays. This is our filming schedule.

Date	Location	Time	Shots	Actors	Props
22th Dec	Charlotte's House	8pm	Shots no. 3-11	Rosie Walsh + Extra's	Shot Glass, Bottle of spirit (Water)
13th Jan	Drama  Studio	Afterschool	Shots no. 13-25	Rosie Walsh + Lucinda Lowe	Strobe Light
22rd Dec	Charlotte's Bed	Afternoon	Shots no. 27-34	Rosie Walsh & Jack Holland	Alarm Clock

Main Task - Animatics

Here is our Animatics video. This shows the whole of our filming, but using only our story boards. This will give us an idea on how long our film is going to last and what the filming is going to look like.

Main Task - Letter to Recording Company.

We want to use the song 'We Found Love' By Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris. To do this, we need permission to use copyrighted material. To get permission, we had to write a letter/email to the recording company that recorded the song, this is because they own the rights to the song.  

This is the email we wrote and sent them:

Dear Sir or Madam,

My colleague and I are putting together an A level Media Production for a part of our course work. It is going to be a two minute introduction to a fictional film.

We understand that you are the owner of the copyright in the musical composition of 'Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris - We found love' and want to include this song in our A level course work. We would like to use the entire song in our Media Production for the introduction of our fictional film.

Since we have a budget of £0 and the distribution of this fictional film is to teachers and moderators of the exam board only, we are hoping that you will allow us to use this piece of music with no charge. If this isn't possible please let us know what fee would be required for this use.

Your signature below, under 'confirmed by' will indicate that you will agree to permit use without payment of a fee. Please let us know if you have any questions concerning this license. In addition, can you inform us as soon as possible if this song can be used by us, so artistic changes may be made in the songs to be included in our production, if necessary, as we have a set deadline for the completion of this task. 

You can reach us via:

Mrs Amanda Jones and Ms Emma Greaves

The John Bentley School

Calne

Wiltshire

England

United Kingdom

SN11 8YH

01249 818100

Thank you for your help with this matter and we look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

Mr Callum-John Lawes and Miss Monique Natasha Jade Cowan

A-Level Media students in 6th form at The John Bentley School

Confirmed by:

Universal Music Publishing Group

Main Task - Equipment and Software.

Throughout the majority of our main task, we have been using the Apple iMac's and the software  available on there.

Including:

This is where we have been inputting all of our information and work. Our teacher(s) can see this and we will be assessed based on our blog.

Our blog URL is: red-leafproductions.blogspot.com

The search engine we use. Out of all of the websites and software we have used, this is probably the most common one for us. We find this so very useful in the creation of our project, and just for anything really.

We use this to research songs, and other films, film openings and title sequences. This has been of great use to us throughout the creation of our Main Task.

Prezi is an online presentation software. We used this site to make our pitch. It is easy and quick to use, and theres no need to worry about saving, opening and finding it in your documents, as it is on your very own online account.

IMDb

This website was used a lot to find out about all of the actors, actresses and films we needed to research and be inspired by.

Outlook Express 
We used this to email our teachers our blog URL, our ideas and if we ever need any help. We also used this when emailing our letter to a production company, asking if we could have permission to use a copyrighted song.

Photo Booth
Photo Booth is a photo taking software on the Apple iMac's, which we used to take photos of our storyboards.

   iPhoto 

iPhoto is a photo storing, importing and exporting software which we used to import our storyboard photo's to.

iMovie 

We used iMovie to create and edit our film opening.

Final Cut

We used Final Cut to piece together and render our movie.