Evaluation

Maria Hamer
6079
For our media product, my partner and
I both agreed that we would be most
interested in basing our media product
on the drama genre.
Research
Firstly, I looked up the definition of a drama film and used this
secondary information to help us define what a drama film’s
conventions are. I discovered that drama films mostly depend on
the in-depth development of realistic characters who are dealing
with emotion situations, such as drug addiction, poverty,
corruption, etc. After much discussion we decided to base our
film around a tragedy drama that would be socio-realistic as we
both wanted to create a piece that would bring out a lot of
emotion and make the audience sympathise with the characters
in the film. This gave us the idea of having our storyline based
around a young teenage girl who has an abusive father and show
the effect this has on the main character’s life. We chose to have
the main character as a young female as the audience are more
likely to sympathise with a young ‘damsel in distress’ rather than
any other age as they are seen as to be more vulnerable, with the
naivety of the age and stereotypical weakness of a female.
Research - Drama Film Openings

Next we decided to look at different film openings of the same

genre to see if we could establish a trend of mise-en-scene
effects. However, we had a lot of trouble locating films which
were solely ‘tragedy dramas’ so we looked at other drama films
that included some sort of emotional situation in the film. The
5 films that I studied included: My Sister’s Keeper, Pride and
Prejudice, Other Boleyn Girl, Time Traveller’s Wife and The
Notebook.
Research - Drama Film Openings
• From looking at the 2 minute film openings of these films, I discovered that in all
5 films, the non-diegetic music used was classical and orchestral music to help
emphasise the mood of the piece, whether it be thoughtful or happy. This showed
us that using orchestral music in our media product was crucial in order to
emphasise the mood.
• I also discovered that lighting plays a big part in emphasising the mood of a piece,
for example, in Pride and Prejudice the lighting was golden and bright, which was
used to resemble the morning sunshine and created a happy mood. This helped
the production of our media product as we chose to desaturate most of our camera
shots and change the hue to a slight blue tint.
• There were a variety of camera shots used in the film openings, especially
establishing shots and close up shots of the main characters. After discovering this
we made sure that we used different camera angles and incorporated establishing
shots (such as the house) and added in a lot of close up shots of our character’s
face so the audience could feel closer to the main character and connect with her
emotions throughout the piece.
• There were a variety of edits used for the films that suited their plot, but slow
motion and the switching between action to a character’s reaction seamed the
more relevant edits for our chosen genre. This came in very useful for us, as we
decided to use a few fade in transitions to add a flow to our pieces and added some
slow motion at the end of our media piece when the title appears.
Research - Drama Film Openings
 The narrative of most of the film openings included the introduction to
the main characters, without there being much dialogue. My Sister’s
Keeper had narration by the main character over the top of the opening
scene giving the audience a quick over view of what the film was about
and prepared the audience for what the film would entail. This played a
big part in our media product as 2 minutes wouldn’t have given us
enough time to create a bond between the audience and the main
character before introducing a dramatic situation. So by introducing a
narration, we were able to establish a storyline to the audience, whilst at
the same time creating a sad mood.
 Finally, most of the film openings had a fairly slow introduction which
just introduced the main characters and some didn’t even have any
dialogue at all. Although we took this into consideration, we thought
we’d challenge this convention as we only had 2 minutes to engage the
audience and the audience probably would not understand the plot and
genre of our media product. So we first introduced a situation to our
storyline (her parents fighting) and then slowed the piece down with the
narration of the girl’s diary which gave the audience the opportunity to
sympathise with the main character.
Research - Music

When researching the type of music used in other drama films, I found
that the composer Aaron Zigman had composed the orchestral
soundtrack for both My Sister’s Keeper and The Notebook. Upon
finding this, I decided to look further into his music and analysed the
use of instruments used as we had initially decided to make our own
piece of non-diegetic music for our piece. Most of the music this
composer uses is slow in tempo and uses mainly violins and pianos.
However, as we did not have the facilities and skill to produce such a
piece of music, we used an existing piece of music from the film
Keeping Mum which we felt suited the piece very well.
Production process

Once we had decided upon the genre of our media product and had
looked at several films of the same genre, we decided to think of what
the plot of our film opening could be. We then came up with the idea of
a young girl who has a bad home life and who’s dad is abusive. In the
opening sequence, we wanted to focus on how distraught the girl is
feeling and wanted to emphasise these emotions through lighting,
music and other mise-en-scene techniques.
Production process - The Diary Narration

I thought that by introducing a narrative (like that of My Sister’s

Keeper), it would make the girl’s sad situation more clear to the
audience and would help them sympathise. As we were only allowed 2
minutes we were concerned that the audience wouldn’t have enough
time to sympathise with the main character and the audience wouldn’t
have enough time to ‘get to know’ the character before introducing an
emotional situation, and still it would probably have seemed too
rushed. As a diary is very personal, it would seem to the audience that
the main character is opening up to them and could create a connection
between the audience and the character which would help with the
emotional factor.
Movie stills
Positioning of main character The closed curtains could suggest that she
shows vulnerability as she is on a does not want outsiders looking in on her
low level and her posture is family but could also represent how she
closed up showing she isn’t doesn’t want to open up about her problems as
relaxed. she won’t let the light in.

The lighting of
this shot is quite
dull and
desaturated
creating a sad and
depressing mood.
The girl’s costume
doesn’t appear to be
out of the ordinary or striking at all as the
colours she is wearing are white ,grey and The fact that there is no
blue and are of everyday clothes. This could unnecessary objects in the shot,
show that the main character is an ordinary ensures that the audience’s
girl and that there could be girl’s in the real attention is focused on the girl and
world in the same situation. the storyline.
Movie stills
The contrast between shadows and light The lighting of this shot is, again,
in this shot could show how the main desaturated but this time with a
character is in the darkness and can’t tint of blue to emphasise the sad
make it into the light, as the girl’s figure mood.
is mainly a silhouette in black.

The reflection on the lake could signify

how reflective she is being about her life
As the girl is in the centre of the
and the ripples could represent how she
shot, it brings attention to her.
has an unclear future ahead of her.
Movie stills
The foreground where the girl is, is very The background of this shot is very
dark in comparison to the background bright and colourful and green. This
which could show that she has a darker shows that the characters in the
past and an unhappier life than those in background are leading happy lives.
the background.

As the girl is in the foreground and the characters playing

are in the background, it shows that she is watching them
in the background and the narration over the top justifies
why (she wishes she had a normal childhood).
Movie stills
The typography chosen reflects the idea The title suggests that the film will be
of a diary, as the font used resembles based around the girl and the thoughts
that of joint-together handwriting. she writes in her diary. It could
possibly show that the film will
progress by looking into her past diary
entries.

This shot shows a pan upwards towards the sky which suggests that
there could be hope for the girl, or even that the girl is looking up for
help. It could also suggest (alongside the fading SFX) that she is
looking back into her memories, of how her problems all started.
Representation of social groups
I think my film could represent middle class, British families who live in rural towns
around the UK, as that is what my media product is based on. This shows that abusive
families can happen in any class as the first establishing shot is of a nice looking,
middle-class house. I also think it represents those who have had a troubled childhood
at home, or have abusive parents. An example of this would be young teenage girls
who have abusive fathers or ones that have parents fighting with each other. I think my
media product represents this particular social group as being innocent and weak and
are too afraid to seek help from other people as the main character in my media
product only seeks refuge in her diary. Teenagers are represented as being stuck in the
middle of situations and can’t find a way to escape from them, as the main character in
my product is effected emotionally by the abuse her mother gets from her father.
Broken down families are represented as being secretive as my product shows that the
girl only confides to her diary, I think it also represents the women in these families as
the victims and the males seem aggressive. Females are represented as being the
weaker gender as both the mother and daughter in my media product are seen to be
distraught and scared around her father. The fact that we had positioned the young
girl on the floor, near a wall could be represented as her having a lower status
compared to her father who is standing behind the door and makes her seem more
vulnerable. Men are represented as being very aggressive and tough as the father in my
media product is heard fighting with the mother and is seen (through the window)
physically fighting with her. This makes males seem like the dominant gender.
Media Institutions
I think that the kind of media institution that would distribute my media
product would be an independent distribution company, most likely British
as the film is based in a rural British town. The reason why I think only an
independent company would distribute this film, would be because my
media product is not aimed at a very wide audience and a major distribution
company would rather invest in a big-selling film that attracts a large
audience. Also, most independent films are made with considerably lower
budgets that major films, and as my media product does not require a high
budget it fits under this category. Furthermore, the marketing of
independent films is usually limited as independent films do not attract a
wide audience and tend to reach out to small groups of audiences and are
designed to advertise through word-of-mouth.
Both The Notebook and My Sister’s Keeper were distributed mainly by New Line
Cinema which was an independent company before merged with Warner
Bros. However, in the UK they were distributed by the British film company,
Entertainment Film Distributors that distributes Hollywood films and
independent films. As my media piece is targeted at a small British audience,
I think the choice of using Entertainment Film Distributors would be wise as
it distributes independent films.
Target Audience
The target audience for my media product would most likely be females
between the ages of 16-35. I think this because it is generally women
who are interested in watching independent films and are more open
to watching emotional films that cause them to respond back.
Females are stereotyped as being the more sensitive and emotional of
the two genders, so they would be an obvious target audience for this
tragedy drama. Also, men stereotypically prefer quick paced films (e.g.
action) and generally do not enjoy watching slow paced films (this is
proved in the next slide, when we had a screening of our media
product). As my media product is based around the fact that we want
the audience to sympathise with the main character and react
emotionally, it would be wise to suggest that the audience for my
media product would be predominately female. Also, the target
audience for the two films The Notebook and My Sister’s Keeper, were
predominately female and between the ages of mid-teens to late
twenties (according to several online reviews) and as my media
product is based around these two film’s conventions, it is wise to
assume that my product will have a similar target audience to these
two films.
Screeningof Final Productand MediaAudience

(Watchvideobelowforthisslide)
Technologies
Throughout the production of my media product, I have come in contact
with and learnt to use a variety of technological programs and devices
that have all helped me to complete my final media product. Whilst
researching different ideas for my media product, I often used YouTube
and other forms of Web 2.0 to watch the opening sequences of films on
the internet. I also constructed an online survey using a website called
SurveyMonkey to make my questionnaire more accessible to the public
and easier collect data from. During the production stages of my
media product, I learnt how to operate HD handheld cameras and
learnt how to edit on iMovie. Throughout the whole production of my
media product, I uploaded my work onto the online blog, Blogger, to
make communication easier and tidier. I also used Facebook and emails
to contact my media partner and found it much quicker, and easier
than having to wait until the next school day to contact him. From
using all these different technologies, I have learnt how easy it can be to
make a media product and explains why Web 2.0 has grown so much
over these last few years and how YouTube is now a key ingredient for
all those small independent producers wanting to share their work.
Problems Encountered
One of the main problems we encountered were cast related. On a few occasions,
members of our cast did not turn up to the designated days of filming and
recording or said they could not make future recording days. To fix this
problem we had to replace some of the characters (mother) mid-production
to keep in time with our deadlines. However, in the end this did not appear to
be a problem as we had already filmed all the visual for the original actress
who was playing the mother and the second actress would only have to record
the audio, and as the original actress did not speak, it worked out fine.
Another problem we encountered was background noise from neighbours and
the public when filming scenes in the house and in the field. However, to fix
this problem, we deleted all the audio from the filmed clips and replaced non-
diegetic sound over the top, and recorded the audio clip of the parents
arguing separately.
Another editing program we attempted to use, was Adobe After Effects. We had
planned to use this program to layer to clips over the top of each other and
also attempted to use green screen. Unfortunately, this program seemed to
advanced and the after product of we had created didn’t really work well for
our media product.
Progression From Preliminary Task, to Full Product

When I began my Media Studies course, I was completely new

to the whole subject. So when editing for our preliminary
task, I was amazed by how many features iMovie had to offer
and was firstly quite confused as to how to use the program.
However, as the production for our full media product began,
I began experimenting with different techniques iMovie
allows you to use and finally became confident using the
program. I discovered many techniques such as slow motion,
fading, changing hue of clip, etc. All these techniques came
in useful when helping to create a sad atmosphere four our
media product and I found it worked well with the plot of
our piece. I also learnt how much technology is needed to
create a short video (e.g. camera, iMovie, online blogging,
internet etc.) and how to use these new technologies to my
advantage, such as when I was researching for my product.
Improvements

If I had more time to complete my media product, I would have

definitely tried to use Adobe After Effects to overlap the two clips of
the parents arguing and the diary and teddy together as I feel that
would have been a good way to put reflect how the girl is feeling and
how she writes it in her diary. If I had the equipment and funding, I
would definitely prefer to use an SLR video camera such as the Canon
EOS 5D Mark II as the graphics would be in much better quality and
we would be able to experiment more with depth of field, which
would help to focus on characters and their emotions. Another thing
I would do again, if given the time and equipment, would be to
create our own soundtrack to the opening sequence as this would
mean we could compose the music to a specific way we wanted to.