1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Social groups are a group of two or more people who share a common identity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_group). Within these social groups are types of social groups, for example :cliques and peer groups. The social group that that my media product represents is teenage girls aged around 16-17. Within my chosen social group are other groups, as mentioned, cliques and peer groups. A clique is an informal, tight knit group usually found in a secondary school. Usually one member has an established yet shifting power over other members. A peer group is a group of people of the same age and share the same interests (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_group). Each of these groups are represented through people of the same age as my character and therefore my character may fit into both of these branches of social groups.
I chose the social group of teenage girls as it fits in with my chosen plot and theme of my introduction. My introduction is about teenage binge drinking and my chosen social groups fit within in this theme as binge drinking among British teenagers has risen. Along with this, the number of teenage girls drinking with the intention of getting drunk has risen to an all time high. Britain is among the worst countries with more than a quarter of 16=17 year olds getting drunk at least three times a month (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-388512/Binge-drinking-girls-outnumber-boys.html.) My chosen social group is represented in the media and society to be heavy drinkers with the intention of getting drunk.
Society also sees teenagers as threatening and in girls cases, spiteful. This is shown through the research that girls tend to emotionally bully rather than physically. This is said to be because they know how emotionally vulnerable they can be. The issues that link to this is that teenage girls may drink because they are alienated because of the bullying or the threat of bullying makes them want to fit in with others by consuming alcohol: peer pressure.
Through the four technical elements, I have represented my chosen social group. Through camera I have represented my social group using close ups (a convention of the genre) to create a sense of the character being closed in the frame and in their lives. This represents the social group as many people in this group are seen as being unable to find themselves. I also used wide shots to show my character being alienated or lost. This represents my chosen social group as there is so much space around the character, showing them to be lost or alone. Another technical element I used is mise en scene. The mise en scene in my media product is a very cluttered room to once again show my character to be lost due to their age. The themes and issues that this leads to is alcohol being the cause of this alienation as well as their age. I also used sound and lighting together to create a sense that the character is hiding something. To do this I used dark lighting and loud to music.I think that my chosen social group is represented fairly as I did try to represent them through my character according to the research that I undertook.
3. What kinds of institutes might distribute your media product?
6.What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
The process of constructing my media product has allowed me to learn to use new technologies. The first piece of technology that I learned to use was the camera. I learnt how to use the camera to allow the lighting of my product to be naturalistic for example using the indoor lighting setting to film my media product in order to make the lighting effective and correct in my media product. This seting also helped me to gain the correct use of lighting to fit in with the conventions of the social realism genre. I also learned how to adjust the ratio in which I shot the film. I also learned to shot my product clearly, for example, learning to use the tripod has allowed me to film fluid camera movements such as panning and tilting, this added to the professional feel of my media product.
Once used to the new technology of the camera, I learned to use the editing programme Avid. Using the programme taught me to edit my media product in a way so that it was effective and made sense. By using this programme I could edit and piece together my media product to add fluidity to the sequence. The video that I was able to edit together allowed me to follow the conventions of the social realism genre and edit and use a range of different shot sizes in order to properly and effectively use the conventions of my choosen genre. However, Avid also allowed me to create my media product as whole. For example, not only was I able to cut and piece together video but I also learned how to edit sound so that it fitted together with the video. I also learned how to adjust audio to make it creative and match up with the video sequence. Avid also allowed me to create film and comapny titles in order to make my film look more like a professional media product and to demonstrate that my product is the opening to a film, fitting in with the conventions of all films.
The process of constructing my media product has also allowed me to learn to use a web blog. After learning how to create one, I was able to gain the knowledge to adapt the blog to make it more creative and clearer to present my work. I learned how to embed my ICT responses to the evaluation, to create links that directly take you to the appropriate piece of work, helping to clearly present my pre-production work and the planning of the coursework.I also learned to use Prezi and was able to gain the ability to create podcasts. Through doing this, I able to make my evaluation more interactive and showed that I am able to use my ICT skills effectively.
7.Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
In the progression from the preliminary task to the full product I have learnt to link micro to macro in the shots that I have choosen to use. This has allowed me to follow the conventions of the genre and to relay to the audience the themes and issues of my media product. The preliminary had little links of micro and macro elements but my media product progressed to linking micro to macro. Continuity was also watched much more closely in order to make my media product look more professional and make it much more effective.
The progression from the preliminary to the full media product also meant that quality of editing is more effective and cohesive. The progression from the preliminary to the main task meant that I was much more able to edit so that the fluidity of my media product is better and to intergrate the codes and conventions of the genre, something that is only slight in the preliminary task. The sound editing in my full media product was much moire effective as I able to alter audio levels and create a effective soundtrack, something that in the preliminary was not used as confidently or effectively.
Looking back at my preliminary task, the progress to my full media product has been vast. My media product was much more professional and much more effective in conveying the themes and issues of my media product and also the conventions of the genre. The link of micro to macro is much clearer in my media product, making it communicate to audience of what my themes and issues are and making it much more effective and insightful.
