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

The main audience for our media product is teenage girls and young female adults. We have specially chosen this target audience because the protagonist is a female and the movie is based around her life and the troubles she faces through her addiction of shopping. However men may also be able to relate to the comedy element of the film too.

The genre is a romantic comedy and we have decided to rate it as PG as ‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’ is a similar genre to our movie. PG means Parental Guidance, which means that some of the elements in the film may not be appropriate for all audiences and it is up to the parents whether they let their child watch it.

We think our film can only be shown at chain cinemas because we have taken inspiration from many Hollywood films and programmes such as Mean Girls, 90210 and Desperate Housewives as we intend our opening scene to look glamorous like Hollywood films and dramas. Moreover our target audience is more likely to visit a chain cinema than an independent cinema, as any young teenager does not often visit an independent cinema. We would also want our film to be enjoyed by both an American and British audience.

5. How would you attract/address your audience?

The genre of the opening sequence is a romantic comedy and we used varied methods to portray this genre. Firstly we deliberately targeted the film at a specific age range, which are females 15-25. We then chose the title to be ‘In your dreams.’ We brainstormed a few possible titles and we chose this because it relates to the target audience and the genre of the film.

There are quite a few aspects in this opening sequence that relates to the target audience. Females can relate to the opening scene of our movie as some women aspire to be independent and also women enjoy spending a lot of money on shopping for themselves.

At the beginning of the film, we start by showing different shop windows and brands. This gives a clear indication of what the film is based around. The mise en scene is particularly important in attracting the audience. We filmed mainly around town that shows the theme of shopping and most females enjoy shopping. We used many long shots and close ups whilst the female protagonist is in town. This was done to show off the female’s clothes and hair and make up. The protagonist was appealing and attractive so she could relate to other females of a similar age.

We also filmed in a bedroom, the bedroom is important because it’s a personal space in which many women spend a lot of their time. We also had naturalist bright lighting to replicate a Hollywood type of film. Luckily on the days we were filming the weather was dry and sunny. Also in our opening sequence, we used upbeat music to ensure that the viewer knows from the very beginning what genre the film is.

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

From the preliminary task we were confident about the use of the camera equipment and we developed an understanding about how to undertake different shots with the tripod and camera. We experimented with different shots and angles, including high and low angle, over the shoulder, close up and establishing shots. Also we filmed many scenes numerous times to ensure we had enough good footage to edit and work with.

To edit our film we used Final Cut Pro which is a professional editing software application developed by Apple.

Before beginning to edit our movie we had to connect our camera equipment to the computer and transfer all the footage we needed onto the computer. The footage was then altered and cut using the 'mark in' and 'mark out' buttons on the keyboard on Final Cut Pro. We then selected the scenes needed and added them to the timeline. Once we had our timeline done we could then add effects and transitions.

Here is a screen shot of our timeline:

We also chose upbeat music that was perfect for the theme and genre of our movie and imported and added to the timeline too.

The text tool then let us input credits and the title into our movie.

We used ‘Blogger’ to create an online blog to present our planning and preparation for the preliminary task and the main task.

Our online blog shows all the steps we took from the beginning until the finale of our movie. On the blog we have also included location and costume pictures, ideas for the title of our movie and exclusive behind the scenes photographs.

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

From our preliminary task we have learnt to enhance our planning skills. All of the members in our group sat down and discussed any ideas we had for our main task; we also made notes and then had a vote on the best idea.

We then discussed locations and it was evident that a shopping location such as Manchester town or The Trafford Centre would be ideal for our theme of our movie. We decided to film in Manchester town because we wanted to do the filming in an outside location as we felt the lighting would be much better.

We filmed during our media lessons, as it was the ideal time for when we were all available.

We researched into our main character. In our preliminary task we didn’t do much research and we actually discovered that research was very effective and helpful. We wanted to portray our character as an independent woman who is pretty and rich.

We then created our storyboard, which was the basic outline of our opening sequence. We had to decide what order the scenes would go in and what was going to happen in each frame. However during the filing we added more scenes especially during town when we added the entertainer to add a comedy element and the scene where the protagonist is walking with the big wheel behind her. We particularly liked this as it establishes the location and represents Manchester.

We learnt how to make our own soundtrack with Garage Band as we were not permitted to use an existing commercial song as we were planning. However we decided for our final product we decided to use a copyright free tune from YouTube.

Through the editing we learnt how to use the Apple Macs and Final Cut Pro. Initially we found it difficult and thought we would not be able to familiarize ourselves with this new technology, fortunately we learnt how to use Final Cut Pro and this should be evident in our final product.

From our preliminary task we also learnt how to use the 180° rule. If we had not taken this rule into account the film would not have smoothly and the footage would look odd.

Overall the preliminary task was incredibly useful as it helped us to be cautious during our main task and it enhanced our camera skills too.

Questionnaire

After the completion of our media product we asked a group of ten of our peers about their opinions of our opening sequence.

7 out of 10 said they really enjoyed it whereas 3 people said they did not enjoy it as it was not a genre they were interested in. This reaction was particularly interesting as the 3 people who said they would not enjoy it were males.

6 out of 10 said that they would be interested in watching it as a real film plot.

6 out of 10 found our editing effective and found the music was appropriate for our genre.

Overall the feedback we obtained was positive and really helped us to gain another perspective on our media product.

Inspiration for the editing of our opening sequence

We watched many music clips and opening sequences of a variety of different movies to find inspiration and help us for the editing of our filming. We especially loved this music video by Selena Gomez and found the editing original and interesting. Here are a few screen shots of a few shots we tried to replicate in our opening sequence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D31Gzfe2yL0

Inspirations for the soundtrack for our film

Lady Gaga - Fashion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msoL-34x5JA

David Guetta ft Rihanna - Who's That Chick http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOdmf4N5aPE&feature=related

At first we chose these two songs as a potential soundtrack for our movie. The reason we chose these two particular tracks is because they both represent exactly what our film represents. Both songs have an uptempo beat which is ideal for the start of the film as we want the song to represent the character's excitement and pleasure that she gains through shopping. The lyrics match the theme too. Furthermore both songs are sung by two very independent artists which also reflects the protagonist in our movie.
However we are not allowed to use commercial songs in our movie as it is copyright so we are either going to create an original track in Garage Band or find an existing track from the internet which we are permitted to share.