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

Here is an embedded video of our preliminary task which I have annotated to show some of the error in it.

From the preliminary task to the full project one way in which I have progressed is that I have realised it needs to look realistic otherwise you wont sell your product to the audience as they will see the film as fake and that isn't the view we're trying to get across. As you can see Luke is playing a woman who is pregnant but he is clearly a male and as a result this instantly reduces how realistic the film will be because as we all know a man cant conceive a baby. If I was to re film this preliminary task I would make surer that the female character is played by a woman to enable that the film is realistic.






At this point of my preliminary task there was quite a bit of camera shake, that was down to inexperience and setting up the tripod wrong and from then to know I understand that all the tripod legs must be adjusted according to the level of the flooring so that there is no movement while filming, and, I feel that I am now experienced enough to know how to move a camera steady and that shots mustn't be rushed.

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

From constructing this product I have learnt about many technologies and processes which have progressed during the making of the product.

I have learnt about technologies specifically based on:

Research and Planning:

In my research and planning blogs I learnt about technologies such as how to take a screen grab on an Apple iMac, you do this by pressing Command+Shift+4, this then allows you to adjust your required screen grab before clicking the mouse to actually to capture the grab, it then appears in screen captures and is ready to put inserted into anything you want for example a blog post. I also learnt how to use the software Microsoft Excel in order to make graphs, which I used to record the results of a questionnaire, this was quite simple to as all you had to do was insert your result into the appropriate grid in the table and re name the label grids to what you want, finally, you had to save it and insert it into where you needed it. Another technology I learnt about was how to make a 9 shot frame which is essentially a collage of 9 pictures from for example a film which would be relevant to what you was talking about in a blog. I achieved this by gathering the 9 pictures I needed and inserting them into Microsoft Word where I put each one beside each other until there was a grid of the 9 pictures each of the same size. Then, I took a screen grab of that collage and inserted it into my blog.

Opening Sequence:

In my opening sequence I learnt many technologies such as how to use a tripod, camera, livetype, imovie, transitions and effects. All these were vital in order to get the correct shots and to get the best out of the shots we have in our project.

Music (Opening Sequence):

The technologies we learnt from the process of constructing this product was how to use garageband where you make your own instrumentals/music based on instruments and other sounds found in the software. This was quite easy to use as all you had to do was find your required instrument or sound and insert it before adjusting its length, then you would export it. The other technology was how to download themed music off the internet, this is where you would just pick the one you liked and clicked download, this was good because it was free and you didn't breach any copyright infringements.
Titles (Opening Sequence):

The technologies we used for the titles were live type and iMovie, live type was more sophisticated at creating these titles because it was a program dedicated to making titles, it was alos better than iMovie because it gave me a higher variety of fonts and transition to pick and there was no restriction as to where the titles could be put. But, all of this made it complicated to use and as a result it took a while for me to fully understand how to use it but know that I know how to use it I have no problems and find that my titles now look as professional as a real movie. iMovie's titles were basic as it couldnt be put over any part of the film it had to be over a blank screen created by iMovie this resticted us so we immediately switched to live type.

Audience Feedback:

I also learnt how to use the software Microsoft Excel in order to make graphs, which I used to record the results of a questionnaire, this was quite simple to as all you had to do was insert your result into the appropriate grid in the table and re name the label grids to what you want, finally, you had to save it and insert it into where you needed it.

Evaluation:

In the evaluation the main technology I learnt how to use was wordle.net, this allowed you to make word clouds with all the key words based on a specific topic. To make a certain word appear biggest on the 'cloud' you had to write it in word numerous times and do so with other words but less or more times depending on how large you wanted the font for it to show up, then, you had to paste all this information into the text box on wordle.net before clicking go. You can then change what it looks like by pressing randomize. The only problem is that you cant save it as a personal image so to get it onto my blog I screen grabbed it on a Mac and copied that screen grab onto my blog post.

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

We tried to address the audience by putting up the project on to facebook, this was effective because it allowed us to access the aimed audience through a popular social networking site which majority of people are on. This enabled us to get feedback on whether people liked or disliked our project.

This is a running commentary of my groups project which we constructed as a group but only Delarney and Luke Power spoke, this will take you through what we aimed to do, what worked well and what went wrong in our project allowing us to highlight certain things that the public may have not of picked up on.

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Firstly I think that my project has a rating of 12/12a because our project contains material which may upset a young children under 12 and many other material which parents may find unsuitable for them.

For my media project I think the target market would be teenagers because we as the project makers realise what they like because we are of the same age boundary so it would be most effective for us to target that age group. I also think that the the target audience for my project is teenagers because they see films with chases, kidnapping and "gangsters" as interesting and "cool" to watch, as a result our project does all of this with a modern twist. Also, they way in which Sam dresses can be related to teenagers of the public e.g hoody and jeans, this allows the teenage public to realise that they are all of the same social group.

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I would say because action films usually require big budgets it would be a well known or big media institution that would distribute my media project such as warner bros. , paramount pictures or twentieth century fox. Twentieth century fox have distributed other action films such as, Die Hard, X-Men, Speed, and, Planet of the Apes. These are all well known films and as a result my media project would be ideal for fox to distribute if I wanted the film to be a known as possible. Paramount pictures have distributed action films such as, Sea Wolves, and, escape to victory; altough these are old films it still shows they are well establish in the action film indusctry making them also ideal for my project as a distributor. Warner bros. have distributed action films such as, Rush Hour, and, The Lord of the Rings; both these films are well established in the action film industry making Warner Bros. a big competitor as a distributor for my media project.

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I think my media project breaks through certain stereotypical barriers of socail groups and also represents socail groups at the same time. Usually in a film of our kind you would see Sam (the hero) ,who is ethnic, actually be someone that is caucasian like Bruce Willis and therefore breaks through that stereotypical barrier because the ethnic person is more likely to be the villain like Michael Clarke Duncan in Spiderman. This doesnt particularly represent any specific social group but it allows an ethnic person to take the lead role in a film which isnt often seen unless it is an ethnic film. One social group it represents is that the "white man" is always the man in charge or the "hard man" like John Forgeham in Mean Machine, this is represented by Luke Power playing a drug lord who is at the head of the illegal activities. This is stereotypical because we are used to seeing the "white man" in charge and the ethnic minorities doing on his hard labour and this is the case in our project. My role in the project is extremely stereotypical because I am black and a henchman; it would be seen as typical because many young black youths are linked with crime, this represents the social group that black males are involved in crime which isn't always the case.

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

One way in which my media project follows the conventions of real films is in the way in which the titles are set out. We first have the production company followed by people behind the scenes such as costume designers, then we have the main characters, main title and then the producers and directors. But, my media product challenges conventions of a real film because we do not have certain stereotypical things that you tend to see in an action film such as explosions and shoot outs, this is because we do not have this kind equipment and funding at our desposal so in terms of special effects the film is very basic. Another convention that my media project follows is the stereotypical storyline of a action film; where Sam is just an ordinary person going to work but he then stumbles upon something he should of which lands him and people around him in danger, as a result Sam gets chased by the bad guys but gets away; then, his girlfriend gets kidnapped and that introduces a damsil in distress (another stereotype of an action film), Sam then has to rescue her because in the group of bad guys one is a crooked ppolice officer meaning if he goes to the police the crooked officer will make sure nothing is taken further. This makes Sam have to take on the hero role making it hero vs villains which is another convention of a real action film.