How does your media product represent particular social groups?

There are very few characters in my action film opening, so there isn't much representation of social groups. However, the lead character, who is female and black, can mostly be seen as a villain as she picks a lock to go into a room and subsequently steals a memory stick, which was my intention when devising the story and the character. This defies conventions of typical action films as, although there are occasionally villains who are female, most of them are white men. (For more on this, see post on using, developing and challenging conventions of real media products.)

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

As part of my research, I did research on film studios that produce and distribute films of the action genre and looked at information such as their successful action films and their associated companies in order to choose the best organisation for distributing the film. I chose to investigate Columbia Pictures, Universal Studios and Paramount Pictures and noted down the successes & operations of these institutions before putting the information on visual slideshow website Prezi:

https://prezi.com/k2vaghppffmo/institutions-research-for-as-media-studies-coursework/

 From the information gathered, I have decided to use Universal (which is in the red circle) as the distributor because the have had many successful film of the action genres that have made a lot of money in North America and around the world; the Fast and Furious saga is their largest franchise of all time as of May 2015, having made $3.9 billion. One of the production companies that Universal has made a deal with, Gramercy Pictures, has been a genre label since 2015, which means that it focuses on the action, sci-fi and horror genres - according to the slideshow, focusing specifically on a genre means that a more successful film of that genre will be made.

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

Conventions of the action genre openings:
My initial research found that, although my chosen openings were quite different from each other, they all had an element of mystery, followed typical genre conventions and created enigma.

Genre
Stock settings
The setting for my opening was a school; this is quite a change from the typical action settings, which are often cities/urban areas and warehouses - this was the case in Spectre, for example.

Stock characters
Action films typically have a male lead and a sinister villain at the centre of their narratives and was found in al the films I researched - we challenged this convention by having a female as one of the leads, which is uncommon in the genre - she was the only character in the opening.


Stock Themes
The stock themes in typical action genres include suspense, violence and deaths - this was what I found in the Spectre opening (when Bond is shown taking out a gun towards the end of the scene). However, my opening only featured suspense regarding the lead character and what she was going to do, before and after she took the memory stick.

Iconography
For action films, particularly spy ones, iconography often includes weapons and gadgets. The 'gadgets' that can be found in the opening are computers and a USB stick that the lead character takes.


Openings
Creation of enigma

In the beginning of the opening, we are shown scenes in a school and a noticeboard with exam notices on it, which would lead the audience to wonder what the film will be about and how exams will be involved in the story. This would be followed by the lead character walking down the corridor , wearing a hood and black coat; as she doesn't speak at any time for the duration of the opening and we don't see her face, the audience starts wondering: who is she?


Introduction to characters
We are introduced to our lead character after the establishing shots of the school setting; we are shown her walking down a corridor, panning from left to right - this establishes her journey and the direction that she is heading in.

Setting up plot
Throughout the opening, we are shown shots of the lead character walking down corridors and stairs to an ICT room; she then goes in, takes the memory stick and leaves, the opening ending when she turns a corner. This introduces the main plot of the story and foreshadows what will happen (that a pupil has to find and get the memory stick back so that the school won't have to push the exams back by a year).

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

Research

Google – this search engine allowed me to research information about conventions of the action genre, appropriate institutions and audiences that could distribute my product and to find sites such as Slideshare and Prezi. I then used the sites that I found to visually present my research on action genre conventions, analysis of Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) and institutions, respectively.

YouTube – the openings that I searched for and watched on this video-sharing and viewing website included the ones for Spectre (2015) and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015); I developed my note taking and analysis skills when I had to note down features such as the creation of enigma, camera shots, camera angles, sound and lighting to use for reference when creating the product.

Blogger – I used this blogging site to keep a record of the different aspects of my coursework, from my research and planning my product, to the changes I made to my plans for the project. As well as text, I uploaded pictures and pasted text directly from the word documents for my research, focus groups and script, for example. I developed the skill of organisation as I saved drafts of some posts while uploading others in chronological order – latest at the top of the list of blogs, earliest at the bottom.

Planning

Blogger – on this site, I uploaded what I had written for my script and shot list form Microsoft Office Word onto my blog as a way of keeping track of what I was doing, in the same way that I uploaded my research of openings and conventions of typical action films. This developed my organisation skills as I could see what I had uploaded (on the All section) and what needed to be edited, checked and posted (on the Drafts section).

Slideshare – I uploaded a PowerPoint presentation showing what techniques were used in the opening to Mad Max: Fury Road were and their effects – unlike the Spectre and Rogue Nation, which were text-based and created in word processors, the slide show for Fury Road allowed me to understand what was used visually, due to the use of screenshots from YouTube and the colours, fonts and layouts of the slides.

Production and Post-Production

Nikon Digital SLR Camera – I used this camera to film the footage of the opening that would be used to create the final product, with different shots and movement. Although we didn’t really need to change the settings to fit the mood and tone of our opening, we used a switch-type mechanism so we would film using the screen, rather than the viewfinder; this made filming easier.  

iMovie – I used this program on an Apple Mac computer to arrange the filmed footage, edit our opening and add titles, the Universal logo, music and transitions between shots and scenes; these were skills that I learnt in order to create this main part of the coursework. After finishing the opening, we exported it for uploading to the Mac desktop, before put it on our memory sticks for uploading to our blogs.

Clip Converter – in order to be able to use the Universal logo for my opening, I had to download it from YouTube using a clip converter site and save it on the Apple Mac computer that I was using to edit the final opening. This aided our progression as in our research we had to look at different institutions for distributing our product and choose one, before explaining why we chose it.

Slideshare – I uploaded a PowerPoint presentation showing what techniques were used in the opening to Mad Max: Fury Road were and their effects – unlike the Spectre and Rogue Nation, which were text-based and created in word processors, the slide show for Fury Road allowed me to understand what was used visually, due to the use of screenshots from YouTube and the colours, fonts and layouts of the slides.

 

How did you attract/address your audience?

After my partner and I finished editing our opening, we invited some of our classmates to watch it, before we gathered their opinions to see what they thought about it. We generally received a positive response in all areas; for example, one of the audience members liked the use of panning movement, while a couple of others admired the presenting of the main character as mysterious as she never spoke throughout and they couldn't see her face.
The full responses, quotes and screenshots can be seen by clicking (or copying and pasting) the link below.

https://www.slideshare.net/the-hunger-games


Here are a couple of pictures from the showing of the opening:

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

The preliminary task was the stage of the coursework where a small scene had to be filmed; it involved a character opening a door, walking across a room and sitting in a chair opposite another character, before some dialogue was exchanged.  As part of the task, we had demonstrate certain skills, which were:

The 180 degree rule
Match on action
Shot reverse shot
Continuity

I feel that I have learnt that the above are important points to consider when filming a scene, especially the 180 degree rule, which can disorientate an audience if not used properly, although I only needed to apply continuity in my opening so that all the footage would be consistent when put together in iMovie. The shot reverse shot was also non-applicable as there was only one character, however we applied shot reverse shot with the main character when she was going to her destination, from walking along the top corridor to down the stairs.
 However, this section of the coursework was useful as I didn't know anything about the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot reverse shot and it will come in useful if I go on to film something that will require the use and application of these skills.

Final film opening

Who would be the audience for your media product?

An important thing to consider when making a film is the audience. According to Google, the definition of a target audience is 'a particular group at which a product such as a film or advertisement is aimed.' Target audiences (which may also be known as target markets) are often based on age, gender, social status & interests and are important because it enables the maker to promote and sell their product more effectively to meet the needs and wants of the consumers being targeted in a better way than if a 'one size fits all' approach is taken.
My target audience will be older children and teenagers aged 12-13 onwards, - I have chosen this age range as many action films are rated for ages 12+, due to violence, for example. This age group is also more likely to watch films of the action genre than younger children aged 11 and under.