Media Studies

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

There are two scenes in our 2 minute opening sequence to our movie, which are similar to scenes in two other movies. One scene is from i-Robot when Will Smith wakes up by the sound of his alarm clock and then has a shower. Our movie is also similar to adulthood because the way one of the characters in adulthood gets his gun out and threat people to give him all their money and in our movie the gangster robs Victim and when the victim punches the gangster, he gets frustrated and shoots him. We also used frequent cuts when Shahroz and Argun were fighting in the film, this is to show high energy on the scene like done in the many Adulthood film scene. We also did research on gangster clothing by watching movies like adulthood, Kidulthood, four brother, I robot and also step up 3. I noticed that new era caps are mostly worn by the gangsters and criminals, which means it was ideal for Shahroz to wear new era cap for the film. In Step up 3 and adulthood all the actors are wearing recognised branded cloths such as Nike, Adidas, Puma and Asics. For this specific reason Shahroz is also wearing Nike footwear & t-shirt and Adidas jacket, this made our film seem more realistic. I also created a sound track using Wave Editor and Garage Band, this sound track was hip-hop instrumental music, by creating this non-diegetic sound will help me build up tension and help me grab audience attention.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Gangsters are represented negatively in our movie because the way the gangster wakes up in the morning and checks his wallet and makes his mind up to rob someone and then later takes the victim’s wallet & mobile and then beats him up then after that he shoots him which tells the audience that gangsters are violent and if you act aggressive against the gangster then, they will end up killing you.

3. What kind of Media Institution might distribute your media product and why?

Pathe pictures is the type of company which might distribute our movie, this I because Pathe pictures has distributed a similar movie in past called Adulthood which was a success in UK and managed to make a profit of £1million. The reason Adulthood is similar movie to ours is because Adulthood didn’t have a recognised cast. Adulthood was also low budgeted film and had a niche audience like our film does.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our main target audience is a niche audience. It is aimed at teenagers and young adults, 55% male and 45 % female and age 16-24. My film would attract mostly to this aged audience because of the youngster casting in the film and the theme of crime. They would prefer watching gangster/crime films as youth are usually interested to see how other teenagers act in certain situation, as they have maybe been in that specific situation or are would like to find out what they should do if they were in that sort of situation.

5. How did you attract/ address your audience?

We attracted our audience by choosing a genre that most youths would be interested in, the type of genre and hip-hop music, which gives the audience thrill and suspense. For example after watching my 2 minutes film opening the audience would want to know what happens after the gangster shot the victim. Plenty of teenagers and young adults are scared of being mugged in the street, mostly by someone who is younger than themselves and would therefore feel rather embarrassed so perhaps wouldn't report it. By visualising some of the stuff which a gangster or criminal would go through in our film, might also warn the audience from getting involved in to something similar in real life. We also used gangster costume and a gun to make the film look more realistic; this will attract the audience because it will be more interesting watching something which is more realistic.

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

What we learnt from the technologies whilst we were in the process of creating our movie was how to use final cut express. We also used Cbyerlink director to do the editing at home. We learnt how to use the crop tools to cut out all the unnecessary scenes that we didn’t need, the speed and duration tool to speed up or slow down any scenes to make them look more effective and the tool which was used to fade in and fade out scenes. We also used Live Type to create the credits to show who played what role in the movie. I also improved my skills on Photoshop when I was creating logo for my production company. I have also learnt how to use a blog because I posted all my coursework on my blog and created a slideshow to show my script. I also learnt how to create a sound track for my movie which I done on garage band and wave editor, I created a sound track by using computerized instrument, I also added effects like beat, drums and many other to create sound track which goes well with our movie.

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

From the preliminary to the final piece is a huge step due to the way you have to edit the movie by adding effects to it, cutting bits and pieces out of the scene and fading scenes in and out, to make it look more effective and more like a movie. We also had to use the tripod to keep the camera steady to make it look professional which we didn’t do for our preliminary task. The preliminary also wasn’t as much planned comparing to how much planning we did for the final piece such as writing the script, doing a story board, using realistic props and customs. We also created sound for final piece to make the film look professional. I have also learnt few camera techniques such as frequent cuts to bring energy on scenes, also using zoom in to catch facial reaction of the actors.