Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

When planning out our sequence, we ensured that we discussed and made decisions on our use of conventions with genre, narrative structure, form and style. Our film is a Romantic Drama named "Pulled from the Rough" that surrounds the life of Jess, as she struggles to come to terms with the death of her boyfriend and how it affects her in her everyday life.

Genre:

Researching conventions of genre were essential in allowing us to be aware of how we were going to use/develop or challenge these conventions. The conventions we show in our sequence:


- A convention of romantic dramas is that there is initially a lot of ambiguity; the audience only tend to see who the main character is without any background context. "Silver Linings Playbook" is an example of where this method is used in a film similar to ours; although slightly different the effect obtained is the same. In "Pulled from the Rough" we show our main character asleep with no dialogue or movement, this identifies Jess as being the central character in our film. In "Silver Linings Playbook", they fade into footage of the main character's back with a voice over from the main character; this shows the audience that the person in shot is an important character, but doesn't give us a lot of context yet.

"Pulled from the Rough" opening compared to that from "Silver Linings Playbook" (David O. Russell, 2012)

- The protagonist will tend to be in conflict with themselves or with other characters. This can be seen in our product with Jess. She is conflict with (1) herself as she changes herself to try and get over the death of her boyfriend (2) Alex as he does all he can to help her get out of her rut, Jess is constantly in conflict with him as she rejects his help countless times. In "Now is good" Tessa Scott has conflict with her father as she goes against his wishes and lives her life to the fullest, even if it includes doing things which are illegal.

Tessa from "Now is Good"
(Ol Parker, 2012)

• Inspiration for Jess came mainly from "Tessa Scott" in the film "Now is good" (A British Teen Drama)

Anna from "My Sister's Keeper
(Nick Cassavetes, 2009)

• As well as "Tessa", we looked at "Anna Fitzgerald" from "My Sister's Keeper"; she is a girl who was raised to be what can only be described as spare parts for her terminally ill sister. She is in conflict with herself as to whether or not she should stand up for her sister when she challenges their parents.

Holly from "PS I love you"
(Richard LaGravenese, 2007)




•  Another reference we looked at is "Holly" from "PS I love you", both Jess and "Holly are going through mourning and initially react in the same way i.e. isolating themselves by staying in their beds alone.

• Inspiration for Alex came from "Adam" in the film "Now is good".

•  As well as from "Finn Nelson" in the television programme (teen drama) "My Mad Fat Diary", he is very caring for his best friend Rae and is always there for her whenever she is having a hard time.

Now is Good
Alex (Left), Tessa (Right)

Finn from "My Mad Fat Diary

- Generally because the characters in a romantic drama go through a variety of emotions, the score used fluctuates in terms of volume and pace according to how the character is feeling. In our piece when Jess' emotions reach their peak the music reaches its peak, the pace and volume both increase to reflect Jess.

The track used in "Pulled from the Rough"

This is the full uncut version of the track; in the opening sequence this was shortened. 

"Remember Me" would be an example of where a score which adjusts according to the character's emotions is used to enhance the scenes mood. This was used as inspiration for our track and the concept of having the music change according to the characters emotions was taken into account when it was being created.

The track used in "Remember Me"

(Allen Coulter, 2010)

Narrative Structure:

When conceptualising the narrative for our product, we applied various theories:

Todorov's theory of equilibrium:

In our piece, the equilibrium is negative; Jess is in mourning after the death of her boyfriend

The disruption is triggered when she has to go back to university for the start of a new term. She begins on a downward spiral, drinking, partying and skiving off her lectures.

Alex steps in and pulls her onto the correct path by making her realise she isn't being true to herself.


Jess returns to her normal self and becomes much closer to Alex.


The two become a couple and decide that the best way to honour her boyfriend's death is to plant a tree in their back garden.

Barthes Enigma Codes:

 

 These enigma codes were set up which allow the narrative to continue to flow smoothly

 

- Why is Jess upset with Alex?
- What is the Jess' relationship with Alex?
- What is the off screen event that they are talking about?
- How will she react to being forced into the world?

 

Levi-Strauss' theory of binary opposites:

Alex is Energetic as he barges into Jess' room and begins
shaking Jess. Jess is Apathetic as she wallows in her despair.

Form:

In our media product we chose that it was best to conform to the expected form of film openings, because it is a sound method adopted by many films that ensures the audience understand the film opening. As can be seen below, we ensured to introduce institutions i.e. production companies, characters and setting; this makes sure the audience are aware of what is happening.

What "Remember Me" did                    What we did in our sequence

The diagram shows similarities between our film and "Remember Me" which is of a similar genre

Style:

 

Titles:

Our titles are very simple; they were designed to reflect the film's nature and the actual name of the film.

The main title from our film opening "Pulled from the Rough"
The font used is elongated, this represents Jess being pulled out of her personal darkness, out of her rut. Essentially being "Pulled from the Rough".

The main title from the opening of "Remember Me" (Allen Coulter, 2010)
The title appears bit by bit and doesn't stay for long, this gives the appearance of memories.

   

The main title from the opening of "Submarine" (Richard Ayoade, 2010)

The title is spread over multiple lines/levels; there are multiple levels to the main characters mind as well as his emotions constantly moving to different levels. Similar to a submarine, constantly sinking and surfacing.

 

 

Grading:

In the scenes in Jess' bedroom we used two different types of grading, each to convey different things.

Dark grading in our film

For the shots in the dark, we chose to add a blue-ish tinge to the footage. This gives her room quite a cold feel, as though at the moment Jess is devoid of all feeling. As well as this, it is a convention of films in general that night shots are tinted with blue to shot it is night. What makes it specific to our genre is that Romantic Dramas use shots in the dark frequently as it conveys the characters inner emotions or lack of.

The Quiet
(Jamie Babbit 2005)

Inspiration was drawn from Jamie Babbit's "The Quiet" that also uses this type of grading when the main character is sat all alone with her mind running ragged.







 

The grading in our film

 The shots when the lights are turned on in her room are graded in a way that makes Jess look unkempt. The contrast was increased to make Jess seem much paler in this section of the film, it shows that she has turned into a very cold person and is emotionally drained. "Submarine" is an example of where this is used. 

Submarine (Richard Ayoade, 2010)

Our piece conforms to many of the forms and conventions set out in media products that are similar to our film opening  in terms of  genre, narrative structure, form and style . We felt that if we were to stray too far from these conventions, then it would in fact have a negative impact on our piece and lead to the audience becoming confused in regards to the narrative. That is the reasoning behind many of our choices seen in our film opening and is what drove us when coming up with the entire concept.

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film contains some very difficult themes, because of this it wasn't possible for us to completely adhere to particular stereotypes or archetypes. In our sequence and film as a whole, our characters go between adhering to one stereotype and challenging another because of their complex natures.

Gender Stereotypes: 

Representation of Young Men in

 "The Inbetweeners Movie" (Ben Palmer, 2011)

In "The Inbetweeners Movie" there are constant references made by the male characters about "pulling" and having sex. This is even shown through the choice of costumes, their intentions are made clear by their shirts which support the slogan "Pussay Patrol".

Representation of Young Women in 

"Legally Blonde" (Robert Luketic, 2001) 

"Legally Blonde" puts emphasis on how social young women can be. "Elle", a young woman aged around 21 years old makes conversation with any and everyone that she meets, regardless of whether they want to or not. This is especially shown in the scene where she instantly befriends a nail artist.

Representation of Young Women in our film

Representation of Young Men in our film

In some ways you could say that Jess and Alex have their roles reversed. Alex takes on the stereotype generally associated with young women in the respect that he is very caring, with Jess taking on the male associated stereotype of being emotionally disconnected.

This role reversal can also be seen in the film "Now is Good", from which we took inspiration for our characters.

 

Clip from "Now is Good"

(Ol Parker, 2012)

  Age Stereotypes:

Nathan in Misfits
 Misfits is a prime example of youth being portrayed as ignorant and rude in a British television series. They are shown to openly ignore the advice of others and in fact throw it back in their faces on multiple occasions.

Jess in Pulled from the Rough
In our piece Jess feels no way about pushing Alex against the wall and shouting at him at the top of her voice. Even though Alex is trying to help her, she openly rejects his help.

Other Stereotypes:

Students

The stereotype of students is that they are constantly out drinking and tend to be quite unkempt and messy. Their bedrooms reflect their wild lifestyle and will be completely unorganised; since students are perceived to drink a lot it would be expected that their room is full of empty alcohol bottles and cans. 

In our piece Jess conforms to this stereotype as can be seen through our use of mise-en scene, this is connoted to our audience by her bedroom being a total mess and littered with bottles, cigarettes and other remnants of the perceived student lifestyle.

 Jess' room has clothes strewn across the floor

with empty bottles of beer all over the place.

Jess' bedside table is covered in mess from her exploits.

The way Jess is initially represented in our opening sequence is not in fact the full picture, the audience become engaged with the story as we begin to fill in the remaining parts. By showing Jess' true nature piece by piece, we make the audience want to continue watching the film and find out more.


When making our film opening and the concept for the entire film itself, we felt it important to portray young people as being much more than what they tend to be portrayed as in the general media. The fact that a stereotype is just a stereotype and is only a means used by society to categorise people, be it right or wrong. People are individual and are much complex than a stereotype may suggest. In our film opening Jess is shown as very rude and uncaring, but in fact she is the opposite. 

As you can see by looking at the narrative structure section of question 1, the reason for her acting the way she does in the opening is because she cares immensely for her dead boyfriend. We conform to the stereotype in the opening to 1) provide a familiar view of people to audiences  2) add depth to our characters' personalities and develop them past the superficial ideas of how people are supposed to behave.

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

When deciding which media institutions would be best suited to our film, there was a large amount to take into account. Our film was made in an independant style, meaning that any distributor would need a great deal of experience in working with independent films, because they tend to be directed at a very niche audience. If the film is distributed and marketed in the wrong way then our film would completely miss our target audience.  Our film is 100% a British film, with a British setting, British actors and made specifically for a British audience; from that we came to the conclusion that any distributor should be UK based with prior knowledge of the UK market. In order to give an overview of what our distribution and marketing strategy is, I have created a Prezi that outlines each of our decisions and the reasoning behind them.

 

Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Choosing a target audience was one of the most important decisions when initially conceptualising our idea. In our research we found out that it is those between the age bracket of 16-24 years old who most frequently go to the cinema. It is from this research that we were able to come up without genre; Romantic Dramas tend to appeal to those in their late teens, early 20's because they are more likely to relate to the characters, events and setting than someone in their 40's who would percieve the circumstances in the film differently to how our characters and target audience do.

Core Audience: 

British Females, 15-21 years old

As well a core audience, we decided on two secondary audiences to widen our reach even further and give us a broader range of audiences. These two secondary audiences may have an association with the core audience, meaning they are all the more likely to go and watch our film.

Some films that have a similar target audience to our film include:


Remember Me                                                                           Now is Good
Core audience:                                                                             Core Audience:
12-18 year olds                                                                            12-18 year olds
Mainly females                                                                             Mainly females

                                                        

Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?

We used gratification theory in order to try and attract/address our audience:



Audience Feedback:

Once we completed our film opening we published a survey. This survey asked question such as "would you be interested in watching the rest of the film?", this was used as insight into what the reaction for our film was:

 When we asked what they expected the film's age rating to be, 100% of those who replied to our survey answered with either 12A or 15. From this, we deduced that we were being quite conservative with our targeted audience. The survey clearly shows just under 50% of those who took the survey believed the film should be rated 12A. To us this is positive as it means we can broaden the types of audiences we market the film to.





Many of those who took the survey were within the age bracket set out for our target audience. This means that the majority of the responses are from our target audience, this gives us a clear cut indication as to how our film is being received by those it is targeted at.

 We were quite shocked that more than half of people who replied to our survey were male, as our core audience is British females. It just shows us that we underestimated how attractive the film would be to males and means we can adjust our marketing campaign to be much more male oriented.

One of the questions asked was out of 10 how much did they enjoy the opening sequence. The majority of responses were from 7 onwards, we found this quite enjoyable to see as it meant that people were appreciating the film opening and were connecting with the story. There was a small percentage who rated the film as a 3/10, but that is to be expected as people have varying tastes in films. It just means that the opinions we are receiving are varied and can be taken into account if we decide to make another film of the same genre.

Most of those replied said that they would be interested in watching the rest of the film. This shows us that our opening was engaging enough to make audiences want to continue watching. As well as giving an indication that people would in fact be willing to go out and spend their money watching this film. Which could lead to the film being successful in the cinema.




The general consensus after we collected the results of the survey is that people enjoyed the film opening and if given the chance, would watch the rest of the film if it were made. As well as this, it showed us that we were successfully reaching our target audience[s].

In hindsight of collecting the results, I realise that we should have added in an option that allowed people to comment on the film and write their personal opinions. By doing this, we would also be able to get direct feedback from those who didn't take a liking to our film and tell us the reasons why they thought this.

After realising this, I made sure to go out and ask others about their opinions of the film opening, some of the responses included:

"I really enjoyed the opening and felt that you gave the characters a large amount of depth. I found it interesting to watch how Jess reacted to being forced to get up. It shows much more than is outright told to the audience, which makes us think about why she is like that."

- This was great to hear, as it told me that people were really understanding the characters and that our film opening made them really think.

"When you watch a Hollywood film the main storyline tends to be quite blande and is all there is to it. It's nice to see that in this film there is a main storyline between Jess and the boy (Alex), but that Jess also has her own side story. It makes it feel like she is a real person."

-I interpreted this as this person thinking that the characters were believable, because it is true that in real life everyone will have their own things going on. Even if there is some big event happening, everyone is affected differently and will handle things in their own way.

Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

We found that there were both advantages and disadvantages to the technology we used while constructing the product. The Prezi below demonstrates our finding and clearly shows every type of technology used in the construction process.

Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

The preliminary task taught me about the basic skills and knowledge of media production from pre to post production. Throughout the duration of the main project I was allowed to build upon these skills and widen my technical abilities.

Preliminary Task Video

When doing the preliminary task I worked with three other students, Harry Kettins, Juliette Wileman and Abiramy Logeswaran. The brief we were given was very simple; we were to make a continuity sequence depicting a character opening a door, crossing the room, sitting opposite another character with whom they have an exchange of dialogue. With us demonstrating our understanding of techniques like shot/reverse shot, the 180 degree rule and the 30 degree rule. Although both tasks had their differences, the skills that I acquired from the preliminary task were easily transferred and applied to the main project.

Opening a door:                                                                               Crossing a room:

  Sitting down:                                                                                      Dialogue:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Original Location
Much smaller room, yellow/cream walls cause a 
slightly yellow tinge to it.

Pre-production:

   

Script for Pre-production video

Storyboard with Animatic photos
Clearly shows shot numbers and details about
shot including content.

Revised Location
The room is much larger, giving us
 much more space for the camera 
and allows greater shot diversity.

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Production:

Demonstration of us blocking shots
so that actors have specific information on
what we want to happen in shot

 

Script for Production video

 

 

 

Post Production:

Even though the preliminary task and film opening were on completely different levels in terms of complexity, the continuity editing was essentially the same:

One difference between the prelim and the film opening is that we didn't grade the prelim- This meant that we had to spend quite a while on getting the right look for our sequence as we were less experienced in that side of post production.

Another is that music was added to our film opening, a lot of discussion went into deciding where the most appropriate moment for the music to be introduced was. This wasn't an issue in the prelim as it wasn't necessary in the task, which added an extra challenge to post production. We chose to have a piece composed specifically for our piece as it meant we were able to control what the music conveyed.

The entire process of making our film opening has been such a great learning curve for me and has broadened my abilities dramatically. When making the Prelim I had a general idea of what each stage would entail, but didn't actually realise the amount of input needed just to complete the task on a simplistic level until I had completed the entire film opening. At the start I would say that I was an amateur at best when it came to everything from pre-production to Distribution and Marketing; but now thanks to both the Preliminary task and the creation of our film opening, I now feel like the sky is the limit as to what I can do. There is still obviously a large amount for me to learn, but I 100% look forward to it and cannot wait to get another opportunity to make a media product on this scale or possibly bigger.