Media AS Film Evaluation

CHARBEN ALILIO

Media AS Film Evaluation

CHARBEN ALILIO

When She Was MineWhen She Was Mine

Conventions: Romantic Dramas

Conventions: Romantic Dramas The simple white

writing on black background connotes the straight forward plot.

The word ‘She’ and ‘Mine’ suggests a

romantic plot.

In stereotypical romantic films there is always a female and a male protagonist. They are usually introduced in the opening scene to portray the importance of their characters and to show the audience that the plot will be based around them.

Conventions: Romantic Dramas

Conventions: Romantic Dramas

Romance; Characteristics•Happy ending•Love story is the most important facet•Usually triangulation--romance is being challenged by person or problem•Told from point of view of both lovers•Miscommunication-characters hate each other, then love each other •Emotional appeal•Strong female characters•Participate in characters’ lives--you’re privy to their inner feelings and thoughts

For my romantic drama opening scene I decided to set it in a park.Parks usually connote romance and beauty which goes very well with the whole idea of my romantic drama.

The holding of hands shows the romantic bond between my two protagonist which connotes relationships and love between the two.

In my sequence the female protagonist talks first and starts the conversation which suggests authority within her and her partners relationship.

InspirationsInspirationsBefore I started production on my romantic film, I decided to look into various

opening scenes of romantic dramas.The film that attracted and inspired me most is a film called ‘Candy’ directed by Neil Armfield.What attracted me to the opening scene of this film was the simplicity of it. I found the lack of dialogue and the simple background music both beautiful and mysterious at the same time. The focus on the two male and female protagonist immediately suggest a romantic attraction between the two, also the lack of knowledge given to the audience about the two protagonist is an interesting touch as it helps lure in their concentration on the storyline.This is what I tried to apply on my own piece of work.

InspirationsInspirations

Wong Fu Productions is a company made by three Chinese-American media college students who started producing short films for their chosen course. They posted their work on YouTube which soon became a international phenomenon, they won awards for their work and are now working on how to expand their production company.

The work which inspired me most was their ‘HK the one days’ collection which are little

love stories in which they filmed in their home city of Hong Kong. They mixed both the American convention of romance with

the Asian representative and added subtitles to give it a more legitimate Asian

heritage feel to it.This is what inspired me to convey my own

heritage to my piece of work.

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

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

MY MEDIA PRODUCT:•USES forms and conventions of real media products of the romantic genre by having two protagonist, one male and one female, and showing that they have a romantic bond together, this is portrayed by the holding of hands, romantic dialogue and other romantic gestures such as looking into each others eyes. These are the stereo typical forms and conventions repeatedly used in media products with relation to romance.

•DEVELOPS forms and conventions of real media products by having titles such as the production company, director, main actors and the title of the film itself, this makes the sequence more believable and legitimate to real media products.

•CHALLENGES forms and conventions of real media products by having a different culture involved. I wanted to experiment and be creative and so I decided to add my own culture into my product, I had my actors speak in tagalog (native language of Philippines) and I added English subtitles to make the product look legitimate to other films which includes a language which would not be understood by the majority.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

• The male protagonist has gelled hair which connotes youth and portrays that he is still in a stage where he is adventurous with their chosen styles as most teenagers are.

• the female protagonist has her hair in pigtails which are commonly seen on younger people,this connotes youth. • Her fashion also connotes youth as it is bright. Yellow also connotes happiness.• she is wearing winter clothing which suggest that it is cold it can also connote the type of country they are at.

• friendship bracelets suggest youth also as it is an object commonly used by the younger generation.

•There are subtitles which implies that they are not speaking in English which connotes their ethnicity.

• the clothing they are wearing shows that they are middle class as it is ordinary.

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

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

Star Cinema is a film company which is based in Philippines and mainly produces Filipino films. They produce films which are also set in different countries other than the Philippines such as ‘The Caregiver’ which was set in England and ‘Dubai’ which was set in Dubai. They also produce a lot of romantic films most of which are award winning. I think this film company might distribute my media product as it fits in with the genre of most of their films. My romantic drama has two Filipino protagonist and the dialogue is in the native language and so it would accompany most of their productions.

Fox Searchlight Pictures is a film division of 20th Century Fox. It specialises in independent and British films, alongside non-English-language films, and is variously involved with the production and/or distribution of these films.I think this film company might distribute my media product as my film is of British production and fits in with the independent genre because it is low budget and simple, it is also a non-English-language film.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Who would be the audience for your media product?

• Women. (biggest percentage of audience of romantic films)• Young Adults (girls).(the protagonist are young adults so it is relatable)• Filipinos. (same ethnic background and would understand the language)• Dating couples. (romantic film= romantic date. Relatable)• People who are interested in multi-cultural movies. (set in England but the protagonist are not English.) • Movie fanatics. (they like any films )

The audience that my media product is aimed to are:

How did you attract/address your audience?

How did you attract/address your audience?

•I attracted my audience by focusing everything on the two main protagonist and the start of their story but at the same time not giving too much information about the plot.•I chose a setting which has the connotations of romance so that the audience knows which genre of film it will be.•The music I chose also gives a sense of romance as it has a soft piano playing accompanied by small amounts of percussion and followed by the strummed guitar which are all very calm and easy to the ears which connotes the easy flow of the story.•To address the audience I chose cheesy dialogue which is easily related to love and romance, the words ‘Forever’ and ‘Heart’ both have connotations of romance and this also makes it easy for the audience to know what genre the film is.•The two protagonist are ordinary people, they are of middle class so they are relatable as most of the audience will probably belong to the same class.

Audience FeedbackAudience Feedback“gives clear connotations of the romantic genre…”

“ uses the same conventions as real romantic dramas…”

“ would appeal to romantic people- young and old…”

“ the music made it realistic and went very well with the theme of romance…”

“ the sequence was well thought out…”

“ presentation background linked very well to the genre…”

“ incorporating a different ethnicity to the piece was particularly good…”

“ the presentation was very detailed but at the same time understandable…”

All the audience who provided me feedback were able to identify the text as a romantic drama sequence, this implies that I used the conventions and imagery of this genre

effectively. They also identified my target which was of the romantic type. My audience described my piece as ‘realistic’ and ‘romantic’, and I was very pleased with this feedback

as that were the values I tried to encode onto my piece. All of them mentioned that my presentation went well with the genre of my film.

Over all I was very pleased with the feedback I got from everyone as they thought very positively of my piece.

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

product?

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

product?iMac: PROS:easy to use, start up fast, log in easy.CONS:sometimes have problems with saving and file storage, not all files are suitable for Mackintosh program.

Panasonic SDR-H81 HDD camera: PROS:user friendly, easy to maneuver. CONS:catches the smallest shakes when filming, saved film not always at the right folder.

iMovie:PROS: easy editing and adding effects.CONS: limited title style, some effects does not work on certain types of video clips.

Garageband:PROS: copyright free music, my own creative outlet, user friendly, lots of instruments without the hassle of recording in a studio.CONS: time consuming, limited types of loops for music sequence, not a note by note music piece, no vocals.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from

it to the full product?

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from

it to the full product?

• Looking back at the preliminary task, I believe I have learnt how to use the camera’s better and how to control each frame for the different camera shots better. • I have also learned how to edit my product so it looks legitimate like the real media products in the market. My editing has massively improved, the simple cuts I used and the rules that I followed such as the 180 degree rule made the sequence more flowing and realistic. I learned that when editing, sometimes, less is more as that could be the key in making it look more professional.

• I also learnt a lot about the musical side of filming. Unlike on the preliminary task when I was just experimenting and was aloud to use any music piece I wanted, on my main production I had to find ways to get copyright free music that best suited the genre of my film this also had to be done for sound effects if I wanted to add them in, luckily mine only needed music as I wanted to keep it simple and straight forward..• For the full product, I did a lot more research and planning before actually filming to make sure that I have a clear structure of what I’m going to do, what it will be about and know what to expect when finally getting to film the product. Unlike before when most things were not written on paper or planned on storyboards.

Thank You Thank You