MAIN Post 12.7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back on both my preliminary task and the main task, from The One Mistake to Behind Blue Eyes, I think there has been an improvement. If I had to choose 3 key points from then until now that I've developed and even improved on they would be as follows below this paragraph.

1) The positioning of the camera when filming the characters has improved from the preliminary task to the main task.

From the picture on the left, it shows the difference in the camera position.
The bottom picture from The One Mistake and the preliminary task shows the camera is too high and not at the eye line level where it should be at, whereas from the top picture and the main task, the camera is placed at eye line level and therefore looks much better.


2) The beginning of the filming in the preliminary task isn't as good as the main task, it's improved from then until now.

The picture to the left shows the beginning of Behind Blue Eyes and The One Mistake. The beginning of The One Mistake simply begins with a black screen showing the title and then a long shot of the character in the corridor. Whereas the beginning of Behind Blue Eyes is with the music coming straight in and panning shots of the equipment and opening credits.

There is an improvement here as even though the preliminary task didn't need to have an opening sequence like the main task did, the beginnings have still improved.

3) The location of where we filmed has improved from back in the preliminary task to the main task.

The picture on the left shows the locations used in the main and preliminary task. I'd say from the preliminary task to the main task the choosing of the location has been improved. In the preliminary task the location wasn't that good as the library was noisy during filming and didn't match the story line as well as the main task does with its locations. The locations of the main task work very well as they are conventional and clear/easy to work out where the girls are.

MAIN Post 12.6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

From the very beginning of the main task we have been using different technologies and throughout we have simply used more. Below is a diagram of all the technologies I've used in this task and what I've learnt from using them.

BLOGGER
The first main technology I used was on the internet and it was the blogger. Every piece of work done during this task I put onto blogger by simply creating the posts and uploading the information needed. From blogger I learnt how to upload my pictures onto the site and how to upload videos for people to watch.

POWERPOINT
The next piece of technology I used was microsoft powerpoint 2010. This helped me in creating pictures, such as the one above at the top of this post. What I learnt from using powerpoint was how to save the images I'd created or put together as JPEG files. This is simply done by saving it as a different format.

CAMCORDER
In this task the camcorder was obviously an essential piece of technology used as this is what captured the footage of our opening sequence. I learnt a lot from using the camcorder as I was continuously looking through the camera getting the right shots to match the shot list.

FLIP CAMERA
This piece of technology was used in the main task to record the audience feedback videos. From using this I learnt that flip cameras can be used to record voices and then edited to here just the voice.

ADOBE PREMIER
This piece of technology, adobe premier, was again an obvious use as we edited our opening sequence together whilst using this. From this I learnt how to add special effects such as cross dissolves and I also learnt how to get the music in sync with the action happening behind it.

YOUTUBE
Another technology I used was youtube, this was because it showed the video clips of all the audience feedback videos and the final finished opening sequence of Behind Blue Eyes. What I learnt from youtube was how to embed a video from that site onto blogger. This is done by copying the embed code and pasting it onto blogger, unfortunately however, this didn't work for some reason when I tried to on my blog.


From all the technologies I used I think I learnt a lot and they all helped in making the final media product my group and I made.

MAIN Post 12.5: How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted our audience through our USP, this is the friendship that Sophie and Paige both have, as shown in the pictures below they are always together.

The friendship between Paige and Sophie helps target the target audience as the people watching can relate to the friendship they have. The audience at home can relate by them having a friend they are extremely close to and know they have been through problems with them so can understand Sophie and Paige.
In order to get audience feedback on our film, we wanted to ask a range of people along with our target audience. Our target audience are people aged 15- late 20's and we asked people in this age range as well as a couple who were older.
We asked several people if they'd come watch the opening sequence of our film and then give us feedback on it, we managed to ask quite a lot of people. We aimed to try getting more of the target audience to actually find out what our 'typical' target audience might actually think about it.
We showed short filmings, roughly groups of 3, and then some people watched it individually, and we did this so we could get a grasp of everyone's opinion and what they thought of the film.

 

From looking at the BBFC website and all the different rating they have, that are 'U', 'PG', '12', '12A', '15', '18' AND 'R18', I can use these pieces of information to suggest what BBFC rating our film would get.

The BBFC Categories

I think the rating for Behind Blue Eyes would be 12/12A Film , this is because of several reasons. Firstly it's because of the fact that in Behind Blue Eyes there is discrete sexual activity between Alan and Sophie, but it is only discrete, therefore it would be inappropriate to rate this as a U (Universal) Film or a PG (Parental Guidance) Film. The second reason is because it wouldn't be rated as a 15 Film because these films have a primary purpose (when showing sexual activity) for sexual arousal or stimulation, this isn't the case in Behind Blue Eyes, as the film would only show small, discrete sexual references between Sophie and Alan.

This may help in attracting our target audience as they'll know the film is rated a 12/12A therefore they'll feel able to go see it without worrying about trying to get into a 15 rated film or not. By our target audience realising its a 12/12A they'll feel more mature as they're able to go the cinema and watch a film that's rated 12/12A knowing they're 15 and the film is a more 'grown up' film as if children wanted to see it they'd have to go with their parents.

MAIN Post 12.4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our target audience are people ages 15-late 20's. They are our target audience as from our questionnaire's the people that others go to the cinema with are their friends. The most frequent people who go to the cinema are around this age as this is what our research has told us.

A member of our target audience would be typically interested in hanging out with their friends. They'd probably be a student or young adult starting out with a new job who finds the latest trends and social gossip interesting. 
Below are some pictures demonstrating what a typical target audience for Behind Blue Eyes would be:

MAIN Post 12.3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

A production company is a company that takes and makes the decisions needed to produce a film. The production company would take a film up to the distribution stage where it would then be marketed and distributed by possibly another company.

A production company in Britain would usually get funding by going to the UK Film Council, which has turned into the British Film Institute. These people would offer funding for producers wanting to produce a film in Britain, and give them the money to fund for it. The money they receive is from the national lottery and would be given to suitable films to fund, such as This Is England.

Whereas a production company in other places such as Hollywood would receive funding mostly from the studios. The studios would fund the films it'll produce in there as they'll receive some of the money back after the film has been released. Other funding could possibly come from the government or if the films are small enough they could even be self funded.

The distribution company that I would like to distribute our film would be Sony Pictures, this is because Sony has a lot of subsidiary arms in several different countries and our film would be able to be distributed well. Sony would be able to market our film through different ways, for example through the traditional posters and trailers and then through the internet and possibly even 'word of mouth'.

MAIN Post 12.2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The main character in Behind Blue Eyes is a young teenage girl, aged 15, as shown in the photos below.

Here, our media product represents a female teenage social group. Sophie represents this social group as she is a typical teenager at school, with a few family problems at home, being that her mother doesn't really make time for her and along with this she has all the stress from her GCSE's that she is currently taking.
From the costumes she is wearing the photos above, being black tights and skirt, school shirt, tie and blazer, it's obvious to the audience that she goes to school. Our media product here represents her in the social group due to the specific costumes we chose for her to wear.



Another character in our film is Alan, he is Paige's father and in Behind Blue Eyes, the abuser. The picture below shows him in Behind Blue Eyes:

From this picture, I know, Alan is wearing the clothes highlighted in the picture below:

From the above pictures of Alan's clothing, he fits into a social group that can be described as well dressed but someone definitely with a secret. He is well dressed as he's wearing a shirt and black trousers, but he has a secret as he isn't wearing any kind of clothing that is going to make him obvious in a crowd. He would blend in, whenever given the chance and likes to keep himself to himself.

MAIN Post 12.1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

                The structure of the sequence of our opening sequence is conventional to drama films as we have shown opening titles, these are normally shown in other drama films such as Drive. From our group’s research on other media products, looking at the opening sequence of other drama films, we found out the type of opening credits conventionally used and the position they are placed. Some of the opening credits conventionally used in real media products and in our opening sequence are ‘Producer’, ‘Director’ and ‘Casting by’. However even though our group used credits in our opening sequence, being conventionally to real media products, we were unconventional in the placement of our film title. In the middle of our opening credits we placed our title ‘Behind Blue Eyes’, this is unconventional to real media products as it would’ve been expected to be seen either at the end or at the beginning of our opening sequence. We were also conventional in the use of setting the mood of the film in the opening sequence; this is again conventionally seen in other media products. This is one way that our product uses a convention of real media products. 

                The style of presentation in our opening sequence used forms that real media products use, one of these is the use of backing music over the action in our opening sequence. The music begins at the beginning of the opening sequence when the camera is shown to be panning over the math’s equipment and then finishes at the end of the opening sequence. This is a convention to drama films, the music also dims down at the points in the opening sequence when the two girls are talking and when the male voice over is being heard. However the use of the voice over in the opening sequence is slightly unconventional to real media products. This is because in real media products, in a drama film, not much is given away at the beginning during the opening sequence, whereas in our opening sequence the voice over gives some of the plot away. With quotes such as “her skirt was short, her tie loose” this gives away the fact that the male had been looking at one of the girls possibly in an inappropriate way.

                The style and colour of the font used throughout our opening sequence, I’d say, is conventional. The entire font is kept in the same type throughout the opening sequence and the colour is kept constant throughout as well, this helps in keeping the main focus of the audience on the action that’s happening behind the font and not all on the font itself. The audience would simply glimpse at the written font on the screen then immediately focus their attention back onto the action happening behind it on the screen.

               The genre of our opening sequence, being drama, used a lot of conventions that would normally be seen in real media products. The first obvious convention we managed to create when we produced our opening sequence was the beginning set the mood of the film, therefore making it feel more realistic to the audience that are watching it. Along with this at the beginning, our beginning also shows a graphical sequence of the camera panning across several pieces of math’s equipment and books. This is more conventional to TV dramas, as this is where it’s mostly seen, for example the beginning of Downton Abbey shows a similar kind of sequence. We were also conventional with the use of the drama genre as real media products that are drama ‘put the characters in conflict with themselves as well as others’ and this apply to the characters in Behind Blue Eyes.  Sophie is in conflict with herself as she doesn’t understand if what shes doing with Alan is right or wrong and because of this her relationship with Paige suffers a small feud. There are a lot of emotional themes used in Behind Blue Eyes that are conventional and that are expressed through the characters throughout the film. Also our opening sequence focuses on social realism, our plot puts across a realistic storyline that does happen unfortunately in the real world and gets the message across to the audience watching it.

                The narrative enigma in the opening sequence of Behind Blue Eyes I think is mildly unconventional as the voice over may be giving too much away to the audience before the film has really started. The use of this voice over was to give hints of what could happen and it can be argued that it does more than give hints in giving too much away as some of the audience in the audience feedback clips guessed straight away that the film would be about sexual grooming. However it can also be argues that the beginning doesn’t give that much away as the majority of the audience in the audience feedback weren’t sure on what the film was about, with guesses such as ‘rapist’ and a ‘dodgy relationship’.

                The introduction of the characters in Behind Blue Eyes is slightly conventional to real media products when the girls are both introduced, as the scene is set up to show the protagonist. It’s set up as Sophie seems to be doing everything, such as, getting stuff out of her locker, getting a bad math’s result and the shots of her ‘short skirt’ and ‘loose tie’. However the introduction of these two characters can also be unconventional as they are always seen together and could in fact be seen to the audience as ‘equals’, therefore not singling out the one protagonist. The male character creates an enigma about who he actually is, and this sets him up as the antagonist. It could be partially unconventional that the male gets hardly any screen time and the audience see little of him, but again, do we want the audience to see him so early in the film?

                The camera uses conventions from real media products as the shots of the characters are conventional. The close ups of the characters, especially the male in the car, show their facial expressions and help to set the mood of the film; this is conventionally used in other drama products to help the filmmakers get the mood of the film across to the audience. Along with this the camera is conventional as the shots, again, help to produce the protagonist and antagonist in the characters that are on the screen. The camera victimizes Sophie by showing the attention on her when it’s her and Paige walking and the camera shows short snips of the male, which could even help set his personality that he has a lot of secrets.

                The sound used in Behind Blue Eyes is very conventional to real media products as the first piece of music heard when the opening sequence begins, automatically sets the mood of the film. This is very conventional as the majority of other drama media products use the music to create specific atmospheres whilst the audience is watching it. Along with this the piece of music we found by December Rising has lyrics that match our plot with lyrics such as ‘we were best friends’ this benefits our opening sequence as Sophie and Paige are best friends and it’s their friendship that leads to the storyline developing. The other sound we used in the opening sequence was the voice over, which isn’t very conventional. Not very many other dramas have the opening of their film to a voice over and even if they do they don’t give a lot of the plot away which our voice over could be argued to be doing.  

                The editing and special effects in Behind Blue Eyes were used to help set the mood of the film as well and this is conventional. We used cross dissolves between some of the shots that kept up with the tempo of the action happening on screen. Also, we had longer shots that weren’t short, sharp shots as this wouldn’t have been conventional to the drama genre. We edited ‘Behind Blue Eyes’ onto a black screen to show the simplicity and obviously let the audience know the title of the film. This wasn’t conventional though as we edited it in the middle of the opening titles, it’s normally seen at the beginning or at the end of the opening credits.

              The mise-en-scene in Behind Blues is conventional to the scenes they are. The classroom is completely conventional as it involves the school equipment, other school children and even outside in the corridor the children walking past in conventional as that is what’s typically suppose to be seen in a school. The mise-en-scene of the car only shows small parts of it, like one side of the outside, the interior mirror and the back seats. This could be conventional as they’re getting into Alan’s car and he is a very mysterious man by not seeing much of the car it could portray his mystery over to the audience in another way.