Media Studies Coursework Questions

Q1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real products?
-A) Our opening sequence uses conventions that are mainly used in the beginning scenes of a romantic comedy. We used the stereotypical gender/sexuality roles portrayed in almost every film, very cliche based around the idea of 'Love'. The film begins with an introduction of our two main characters who have fallen in love and are in a long-term relationship. There is a big twist to thier relationship, including a period where it seems the relationship is over until the end when they are reunited and are happy together. The majority of our filming was done in and around central London, we decided to take this approach with the filming as many films of this genre are set in large city locations that people can recognise and connect with in one way or another. Typical male and female relationship; the male character creates a light atmosphere by bringing comedic value to the film due to his struggle to win back his girlfriend. There is a typical soppy, light-hearted and lovey-dovey plot to our film. These are some of the ways we used typicl conventions of a real romantic comedy in our film.

Q2) How does your meida product represent particular social groups?
-A) As the two main characters are teenagers the social group we represent in our film were definately teenagers particularly teenage couples. I feel we represented them in an innocent way. As to be expected there were a few kisses, however there was nothing sexual or inappropriate so our representaion was by no means negative

Q3) What kind of medi institution might distribute yor media product and why?
-A) I think our film would maybe be distributed by the UK Film Council as our film is likely to be a low budget british production; they work to make non-maistream films more widely available to cinema audiences and support the export of UK films abroad.

Q4) Who would be the audience for your media product?
-A) Our target audience would be females from the ages of thirteen years onwards.

Q5)How did you attract/ address your audience?
-A)To attract our audience, we made sure that sound was a key feature. This is to grab peoples' attention and interest them in the story right from the beginning, the more comical and entertaining the story is the more likely they are to be drawn into the film and watch what will happen next. In order for the music at the end to have a significant effect to the film , the right location and dialogue was improtant; the second factor was also ensuring that the song was appropriate for the film. For example we could not use a heavy metal song because it simply would not match. We tried to set a certain pace, starting with a clear opening which consisted of myself and Susie (our main actress), having a good time (acting as a couple), to keep our audiences interest.


Q6) What have ou learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
-A) I have learnt that you can change a lot of what you have originally filmed to fit your original plan. When filming shots, it is acceptable to have more footage than you actually need, because it can all be edited. With the use of editing software effects and transitions can be added to help the film flow smoothly.

Q7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
-A) I feel that the opening looks like a real romantic comedy opening, having a voiceover and the titles afterwards, our editing was the area we flourished towards the end of the task, although this is the area we initially struggled in. The shots work really well together and i feel that the story now works better than it did before now we have incorporated the voiceover. I was quite suprised to find out exactly how it worked using Imovie, being we recorded it as regular footage and simply extracted the audio and layered it with the film. The dialogue also fits in perfectly with what is happenning on the screen, our story makes perfect sense now with the audio on top, it gives the opening the atmosphere we were aiming for. I have learnt that there are so many little things that matter in an opening sequence, slight details that you change can have a huge impact on the finished product. Also going by the conventions of real romantic comedy openings, we were able to come up with a few new ideas and gain a greater understaning of what we needed to include and how we were going to include it.


Nathan Registe