Prompt Questions

1. Outline, briefly, how your approach to your current production work differs from experience of pre-production at AS.
At AS level, I feel as if I was fairly naïve about the whole process involved in pre-, during and post-production work - for example, the research and planning required. 
This year I feel a great deal more engaged with my pre- and current production work than I did during my work at AS; I think this is mainly due to the fact that I feel very connected with my film idea and having identified what I would like to study at university - Media Production -, this has given me an enormous drive for the year. 
Therefore, I feel that my approach to my current production work differs largely from the experience that I gained from pre-production at AS. I am also largely determined at A2 to focus more on the elements that I did not exceed as well as I possibly could have done last year. For example, I am wanting to focus on mise-en-scene and the audience research aspects more.
What decisions have you made about the narrative structure of your short film. How has your thinking about narrative moved on since Year 12? 
The structure of my narrative is going to be fairly linear seeing as I have a fairly solid structure. However, I have recently been considering adding an element of a flashback in order to enable the audience to understand the lonely life that the puppet was experiencing before he met Jacob and the mannequin. This will give my short film some added depth and I feel that this will be a good step forwards from my AS film opening because the narrative was quite flat and didn't seem to challenge many narrative structures and so it didn't engage the audience as well as I think my short film this year will. :)
3. To what extent could the short film form be considered a discrete genre?

Evaluating my AS work in preparation for the A2 exam..

Explain how far your understanding of the conventions of existing media influenced the way you created your own media products. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how this understanding developed over time.
My understanding of the conventions of existing media influenced the way I created my own media product (AS) in a great way because I analysed existing films such as 'Remember Me' (2010) and 'Bridget Jones' in order to understand why certain conventions were used in order to capture the audience.
In terms of progression and developing over time, I originally knew that I wanted to utilise and experiment with the idea of using famous quotes such as Gandhi and Marilyn Monroe.
My initial inspiration came from 'Remember Me' however, when I did a comparison essay between 'The Other Boleyn Girl' and 'Atonement', I noticed that the titling for 'The Other Boleyn Girl' was very simple and used piano music in conjunction so that the audience focuses on the actual video and audio, rather than an opening title which is against a colour of image background. This kind of titling would be typical of a horror film or something of this genre.
I strongly took to the idea of a film opening being simple and not trying to 'throw too much at the audience' so that they were able to build a rapport with the character and the character's profile. This led to me using simple camera shots that flowed together rather than quick, snappy shots which would be typical of an action or adventure film that is very fast-paced.
'American Beauty' also uses this concept, in which Kevin Spacey's character is giving an opening monologue/narration in conjunction with a shot of his neighbourhood and looking at the types of characters that live within it.
The progression that I undertook whilst creating my own media products was greatly inspired by the films that I researched and analysed, in order to gain an idea of the conventions that they used within the genre. For my media product, I chose to both follow and challenge some of the conventions; also looking at the different mise-en-scene encorporated by film directors to capture the audience. The impact that this had upon my media product was strong and gave it a certain style which followed well with my titling sequence for my film, 'A Day In The Life Of...' which was white and green in colour and in a font of writing that fitted with the music and video footage.

Describe how you developed your skills in the use of digital technology for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to your creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how this understanding developed over time.
When constructing this product I learnt a great day about technologies. I used a wide range of technologies such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, YouTube, IMDb, Google and a Canon HD Legria HFM306 camera. When carrying out research prior to constructing my media film opening, I utilised YouTube in order to look at existing products within the film industry and also film openings that had been produced by previous Media Studies students so that I was able to gain an understanding of what is successful and what kind of things I would be able to create.
When it came to filming, I found that the camera was very well suited to our task set because we were able to achieve some great results, particularly down to the clear picture quality that we were able to obtain; having said this the camera was also easy enough to use that there weren't any prominent difficulties, especially because we had used the cameras before when filming projects in class and in our 'The Hangover' project which we completed in groups.Not only was I able to learn about technologies during the construction of my project but also how to develop the use of them into producing a successful and well-rounded film opening.
Throughout the year, not just in the construction of my media product, I learnt a great deal of skills and I found that I was able to develop these quite easily, thanks to the help and tuition that we gained as a class from James, in working on Adobe. When creating my titling on Adobe After Effects, I was actually able to utilise the skills that I gained when working on the piece that we created for 'Anatomy of a Murder' and the 'Teletubbies' sequence.
These skills contributed heavily to my creative decision making because I knew what I was able to achieve and how to create a successful opening.

PROMPT QUESTIONS

Digital Technology

• How has digital technology helped you to capture your ideas for media production?

When constructing this product I learnt a great day about technologies. I used a wide range of technologies such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, YouTube, IMDb, Google and a Canon HD camera. When carrying out research prior to constructing my media film opening, I utilised YouTube in order to look at existing products within the film industry and also film openings that had been produced by previous Media Studies students so that I was able to gain an understanding of what is successful and what kind of things I would be able to create.

When it came to filming, I found that the camera was very well suited to our task set because we were able to achieve some great results, particularly down to the clear picture quality that we were able to obtain; having said this the camera was also easy enough to use that there weren't any prominent difficulties, especially because we had used the cameras before when filming projects in class and in our 'The Hangover' project which we completed in groups.

Not only was I able to learn about technologies during the construction of my project but also how to develop the use of them into producing a successful and well-rounded film opening.

Therefore, digital technology helped to capture my ideas for my media production in the way that they enhanced my initial visions and enabled me to create a product that was particularly successful. I could not fault the technologies that I used because they were all very useful despite having some initial problems which made me realise that I wouldn’t be able to achieve every single one of my ideas or visions. Overall, the technologies enhanced and developed my prior knowledge of them that I had and so I was able to learn a great deal.

Creativity

• What features of your work would you say are original to you?

I believe that most of the work that I created was original because I tried to challenge conventions from already existing media texts and so the ideas and features of my work were new and innovative. I didn’t want to create a media text that was fully stereotypical and conventional because it wouldn’t enable me to demonstrate my understandings and knowledge that I had gained from the subject and course. Therefore, I would say that most features were original such as; my production company and sequence – Juxtaposed Productions; title sequence; my initial idea and all production work.

Research and planning

• How did your research into genre contribute to your production work?

I carried out a great deal of research into genre prior to my production work and this was very helpful because it enabled me to look at the traditional/standard conventions and how I could incorporate and  challenge them.

When brainstorming and attempting to establish the genre and audience for my film I created an audience character profile that allows you to identify what kind of audience you want to target and how they will relate to the film. I decided that I would like to target the Mainstream Plus audience because they are primarily looking for good films however, they also try new things that aren’t similar to the more mainstream big ‘money-makers’. I chose the genre of a ‘Romantic-Comedy.’

Post-production

• How much of your text was ‘created’ only in post-production?

I believe that the concept of 'creation' through post-production is a necessary and inevitable process because no idea would be complete in the initial ideas stage and when a director or editor is filming the original script, there are new ideas and concepts which are added or removed in order to make it more successful and effective.

I would say that quite a lot of my text was 'created' during post-production because there were many ideas and scenes that I hadn't thought of and when it came to filming and editing I believed that it was crucial to add them. However, I did remain true to my original ideas throughout, merely adapting and enhancing them as I went along the process.

Using conventions from real media texts

• In what ways have your productions used or developed conventions adopted from real media products?

The genre that I chose when planning my film was a Romantic Comedy, more commonly known as a ‘Rom-Com’; they are typically light-hearted films with humorous plotlines that are centred on romantic ideals such as ‘that true love is able to surmount most obstacles’. Although I followed this genre, I wanted to challenge the concept by not displaying a possibly romance or even the female protagonist’s physicality to the audience within the opening two-minutes. My reason for doing this was because I wanted the audience to build up a rapport and understanding of Eliza’s character through her dialogue rather than establishing a stereotype or prejudgement of the character from just appearance alone; this also allows for some background to be established because it is her dialogue that captures the audience, this keeps them intrigued and interested to watch the rest of the film.

Another aspect that I chose to challenge was the range of shots that I used within my opening; I wanted to keep it simple, and so I didn’t use too many shots and when it came to editing I used effects such as a cross-dissolve in order to blend the shots together so that it flowed well as a transition and was easy to watch for the audience, rather than using snappy and fast-paced shots that would be typical of genres such as horror or action films.

Having said this, I have used and developed the typical forms and conventions of real media products within the industry by using non-diajectic audio within my opening; I did this in the form of music and Eliza’s voiceover. I believe that using the music allows emotion to be developed within the audience and this can strongly influence the effect of the film on the audience. A film that particularly influenced and inspired me was Bridget Jones’ Diary because within her dialogue and voice-overs she provides a very humorous and entertaining aspect and this fuels the popularity and success of the films.

One form that I chose to develop was the use of quotes from famous and well-known people from around the world within a film opening; a particularly effective example of this for me is Remember Me in which Robert Pattinson’s character has a fairly troubled lifestyle because of his father and he is able to gain inspiration and many life lessons from Gandhi. Remember Me is a 2010 American romantic, coming-of-age drama film directed by Allen Coulter, with the screenplay by Will Fetters. One particular quote is "Gandhi said that whatever you do in life will be insignificant but it is very important that you do it...". This quote relates to my media film because I am intrigued by the use of famous historical figures whose words are able to have a great and significant impact upon peoples lives.

“ In a typical romantic comedy the two lovers tend to be young, likeable, and apparently meant for each other, yet they are kept apart by some complicating circumstance (e.g., class differences, parental interference; a previous girlfriend or boyfriend) until, surmounting all obstacles, they are finally wed. A wedding-bells, fairy-tale-style happy ending is practically mandatory. ”