Who would be the audience for you media product?

We agreed right from the start that we wanted our thriller opening to appeal to young adults as we believe that we can relate best to them, giving us an advantage in knowing what they would want and things that would attract them. We decided on the audience ages between 15 and 24. This would give us enough room to include key things that would be looked at as mature for our age, or then again immature. We would appeal to both male and female audiences. We understand that our thriller would appeal to older audiences but we believe that this would be the minority of the viewers hence why we predominately are making this for a younger audience in key with our own age group. People who like and are interested in films such as Panic Room or The Book Of Eli should be interested in ours.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I believe we attracted and addressed our audience in a number of whys. A realistic location combined with a day to day job and guy as the victim added to giving our opening realism and suspense. Using voyeurism is always a good way to get the audience hooked and involved and i think we did this well.
The music was effective at drawing the audience in and the results from a survey we took whilst screening the rough edit told us that everyone thought the music was 'Good' or 'Effective'. This made us proud to keep the music we had made to use in our soundtrack as we knew that it did appeal to our audience.

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

We used a lot of different technologies in the making of our thriller opening such as filming camera, tripod, IMac Pro, and IMovie. Using these have helped to increase my knowledge and realise all the different aspects of film making and what i need to use to be successful in doing so. I have enjoyed learning about these products particularly the editing software on the IMac. I used the filming camera and tripod whilst filming at our location, learning how the tripod moves around and keeps the camera straight and motionless. I then moved onto the editing of our filming and found that using a IMac Pro was the best option with its successful and easy to use software. I did have a glimpse at the 'Garage Band' software as we made our own soundtrack and although i have used this before it was good to be refreshed with it and seeing it on a IMac was great. IMovie was our chosen editing software on the Mac. It was straightforward and quite easy to use and understand. I now feel entirely comfortable to go ahead and use it in further editing.


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


I feel my knowledge has become a lot stronger since my preliminary task and my confidence has risen dramatically. Going into the preliminary i would not of known much at all about the tripod or editing software on the Mac, i now feel fully comfortable and able to use all the technologies and equipment for any future tasks and feel my development has been a strong gain and i am looking forward to using the skills i have learnt in further tasks. 

The extract is about immigration and showing us a different side towards illegal immigrants and two sides of the British attitudes towards them.
The clip shows all the immigrants working together, intelligence and fear. As the immigration services storm into the hotel the lady sitting at the desk on the front is bothered straight away but looks down like she is innocent and doesn't know what is going on. She then looks up to greet them, again looking uncomfortable and awkward.

Television Drama- Disibility

Television Drama is definatly a huge influence on shapeing public attitudes towards mental illness.
It still seems to be that even in the 21st century this subject is still shrouded in ignorance and misunderstanding. The article I am looking at is asking whether or not it is the job of the industry to challenge these popular 'myths' as they like to call them. I believe it is needed to be broadcasted across television due to the high amount of people who sit there and will watch it. People need to know and understand to stop predjudice and intolerance towards disibility and rare cases among these that people do not get to see everyday. I believe things such as schizophrenia that has been summond to a character in one of Britans well known soaps 'Hollyoaks' was a must see and a brilliant take into understanding the illness, something people are not so aware of and is not something you can see just by looking at a person like other disabilitys can be. It shows how an illness can effect not only the person but also alot of people around them. Television Dramas have been using disabled characters alot more i think since the makeing of doctumentarys looking into the lives and conditions of these people. I think that anyway.

Key Finding's from the article;

- 63% of the references in dialogue were pejorative, flippant or unsympathetic; terms included 'crackpot', 'a sad little psyco, 'basket case', 'where did you get her from, Care in the community/' and 'he was looney tunes'.
- 45% of programmes featuring mental illness storylines portrayed people with mental health problems as dangerous. For example bipolar Karen Mcguire in Shameless on channel 4 attacks her partner in a fit of rage as she is about to be sectioned.
- 45% of programmes had sympathetic representations. For example, in eastenders the market stall manager gives Stacey her stall back after her friend becca pretends to be a council lawyer and treatens to take him to court for discrimination on grounds of her mental ill-health.

To conclude;

Television drama has enormous potential to challenge stigma and improve public understanding witness the huge increase in calls to bipolar helplines on the back of the stacey storyline in eastenders.  Unsympathetic portrayals and references to mental health still predominate. The over-representation of protrayals of violence with nearly half of programmes suggesting people with mental health problems pose a threat, contributes only 17% of newspaper articles imply this, suggesting they may inface paint a less unrealistic picture of mental illness then tv drama.  Mental health professionals, charities and people affected by mental illness are all keen to work with the industry to help create authentic programmes rooted in reality.

feedback on Doctor Who extract watched for practice exam question

I did not do very well with the timing. I managed to right very little and very briefly in the time set.                 Unfortunately we did not have anywhere near as much time as we would normally have for an exam                  question. I did not find the clip interesting as it is not really my type of thing. I found some of the things that we needed to comment on harder to look at. I enjoy just looking at things like mise-en-scene. I will be            concentrating a lot harder on the other points as we look at more and more practise examples before the                    exam takes place.                                                                                                                                                           
The copy of someone else's answer to the question is very good.  It starts off with a insight into what the           clip is and where it is from, this is nice to have however it is not really needed. They then go on to talk           about the camera shots first - something i find easy to write about but also extremely boring. I need to learn                         the names of a few more shots to be able to talk about this point properly! They get ticks on various points           they have made - this outlines what the examiner will be looking about for and what i will be able to gain          marks for when i am writing. They talk about how the camera shots can show feelings, i like this point as it is so true, you can make someone look and feel vulnerable or big. Also the audience is drawn into the                 feelings by the camera angles and this needs to be done to make it a successful programme/film.                          
They then move on to editing- another area I do not particularly enjoy. But a big chunk is wrote for this. I              find it hard to separate what has been edited and how it was managed.                                                           

Avatar Website

I visited the avatar website, looking at what it offers other than the actual film, and looking how they marketed the film in different ways. Looking at convergence. How far can they take it? On the front page it offer 20 different country variations, this is them trying to appeal to as many audiences as possible. The success of the film could be dramatically altered if it offers them the chance to view in their own language.
I went onto one of the things the webpage offers, a chance to make an avatar of yourself. By taking a picture on your webcam or uploading a picture of yourself you can then see yourself transformed into one of the famous characters. You choose the jewelry and accessories that you wish for, also your hairstyle. When you type your name in at the start by the end when yo get your finished result it changes your name, to an avatar one. This increases people excitement and includes the audience a lot more.

Eastenders- Kat and Alfie return - Mise en scene

I have watched the trailer for the return of some of the soaps best loved characters, Kat and Alfie Moon. 

This is set using conventions of a typical western film of sort. It starts with a shot of the Queen Vic, the soaps pub included in almost every episode. Its from a low angle, looking up making the building seem intimidating and giving us the ability to watch as rubbish and debry fly across the ground, like tumbleweed across the sands in a western film. The pub is bordered up, giving us a feel of loneliness and venerability. Also for the first few seconds when we are watching the pub and rubbish we cannot see any people or life. It looks bleak, dead and gives a sense of fear to the audience. The colors are quite bland, sepia brown tones. Typical of westerns,to be in this color because of  poor quality. Then you see a sign moving in the wind, feeling something coming. Its like in a western when the pub sign moves back and forth in the wind screeching and you know somethings coming and going to happen, all you can do is wait in anticipation. 

You see the boots, shaped like cow girls would wear, small heal, black and shin high. They make a noise that fills the square and echos, they're loud and create fear and wonder. The sounds and music amplify this. As the female drops her bag it makes the sound as if she was jumping off a horse in western films, ready to battle. 

You see the bottom of her outfit, tassels waving in the wind. You can see rubbish still lying around at her feet and right into the distance. Her outfit is rather tribal like, not neat. She is wearing a shawl, gold bangles, and a dark outfit. Her dress is short and rather tart like, giving us an instant bad impression and giving out connotations of a rough person who could cause damage.

 Her hands are places either side of her and open, if they were closed i think it would show fear in the character, willingness to fight and them being reserved. However her hands being open i think shows that she doesn't really care what people are thinking, she is there to take whatever. Her dark makeup and large hoop earrings are the icing of her look. She has a smug look across her face as if she knows everyone is watching and thinking about her, she likes that. 

It goes on to view other peoples reactions to the return, fearful and shocked, yet she is still able to stand there above the rest, almost as if she is looking down on them, really not caring. The other characters look to scared to pick a fight but she looks very willing. She is also the only character so far to be dressed in clothes related to the western films. Patrick, an old man character is the next shot. It shows him watching her and them tilting his hat up, like a cowboy would with his pig skin hat. It blurs out the background and just concentrating on his action making it a big part of the trailer. 

As Kat drops her shawl the wind from it dropping to the floor makes her hair blow up and in her face. It shows that underneath she is wearing a rather revealing dress, small and open. She doesn't look neat. She then dips her hand into her bag, her bag is located to the side of her body like a holster on a cowboys side. She reaches in, like a cowboy would with a gun, and pulls out a compact mirror. As she flicks it open the sound is like a gun being loaded, this is so right for the scene, you can imagine everyone watching her doing this action with concern and fear.

As a voice appears from behind her, she obiously knows who it is. Her face changes from a smug smile, dropping into a shocked, worried face. She spins around. 

A character in a long dark coat and a hat covering the top half of this face emmerges from the dark. As he comes into the light he lifts his head up slowly revealing more and more of his face. The camera is looking up at him making us fearful and him looking extra strong. 

He has a white stick hanging from his lifts like a cowboy would a cigarette, a toothpick or a bit of hay. It then shows both characters blowing in the wind, and the clip finishes. 

Eastenders-10th Nov, 2011.

After watching 10 minutes from the 10th of November 2011 episode of Eastenders I have now been able to analyse typical soap opera conventions.
The opening of the clip starts with an establishing shot, over the top of East London, where the soap is set. The establishing shot is quite common in soap operas, another famous one would be Coronation Street. After the theme tune is played the name of the programme comes across the establishing shot in big writing. This is instantly giving us information about the programme. It then starts straight away with dialogue involving the audience, watching one of the shows main characters Phil Mitchell storming around the square.
The whole scene involves real life ideas that are happing in society at this moment in time. Such as family problems, the way that effects teenagers, sexuality, rights, violence, use of weapons. They use these story lines so the public can relate with the show and understand where different characters are coming from. At the end of most episodes there will always be some sort of cliffhanger whether its big or small, people will come back to find out what happens.
During the episode music and every day noises help to set the atmosphere, also with the tremendous acting its all very believable.