Evaluation Question 7: Comparison to preliminary task

Category:	Preliminary Task	Final Product
Camera use	In our preliminary task we were only capable of very basic camera shots. This is because we were not willing to over complicate things because we were not very confident in our own ability.	In our final product we used a wider variation of camera techniques and movement. This is because at the time of our final product we knew what we could and could not do. But that didn’t stop us, we tried more extravagant camera movements such as the sweeping shot at the end of our final cut and the extreme high angle shots at the end of rough cuts 1 and 2.
Editing	In our preliminary task it would take us half an hour to get a match on action right. And we had to delete shots because they broke the 180 rule.	We were able to be more extravagant with our editing techniques because we had more time to do so. This is because we flew through things such as match on action shots in under 5 minutes. Because we used after effects we could execute things such as colour corrections to give our film a more professional finish.
Technologies used	In our preliminary task we used iMovie and a standard definition camera so we couldn’t produce high quality finishes like that of our final product	In our final cut we used after effects and a high definition camera so we could produce high quality finishes like that of a Hollywood studio. These techs made it easier to produce a high quality finish as they effectively not let you publish something which was dodgy without seeing it. Therefore you could rectify these errors and you would have a much higher quality finish.
Teamwork	Our teamwork was poor in our preliminary task. We all had different ideas of what should happen and there was a lot of improvisation when we were filming. Also we were poorly organised actors didn’t give their consent forms in until the day of filming and everybody wanted to do all of the editing.	Our teamwork improved vastly for when we worked on our final cut. There was no improvisation for starters we all knew what we had to do. Also I made sure all our actors consent forms were in a whole week in advance to the original day of filming. When it came down to filming having to be postponed due to snow then I made sure I kept in contact with the actors and arrange a new day when everybody was free. When it came to editing, Will taught us how to use after effects and we then devised a rotor for editing in pairs. I edited with Charlie and Will went with Max. Because of this our editing ran smoothly and efficiently.

Evaluation Question 6: Technologies in our media products, pros and cons and what problems we encountered?

Evaluation Question 5: How would we attract our audience?

As our target audience is families we decided upon this because of the majority of the real films cast would be made up of mostly children but also orientated around different types of families as this would make our film more relatable and should attract more of an audience. The dialect in our film is very simple so it can be understood by all ages, with the exclusion of any innuendoes.

To attract the younger segment of out target audience we thought that a good idea would be to use actors from children's tv shows with a unisex target audience such as Disney's Ant Farm, where we found the actor who would play chuck in our film. Also using actors which they have seen on their tv could make the film more enjoyable for them as the actors are familiar to them. We have done the same with the older sector of our audience for example we have cast Hugh Laurie as he is in many tv shoes which adults would watch such as House and using Hugh Laurie should also attract a british audience as Hugh Laurie is British. We used a different variety of character personalities. For example Tyler is more mature than others his age and is seen as a role model where as Chuck is a bit of a fool and Leo is a 'NERD'

We believe that a good way to attract an audience is to make a film relatable. Therefore in our film opening we told our casual characters (Tyler, Lilly and Jaz) that they would be wearing a costume made up of casual laid back clothes. We also got them to ride bikes as away of making it more relateable as most kids have bikes.

The music we uaed in our film opening would attract a younger audience as it was a more bouncy and tune which should make the children enjoy the film more and put everyone in a happy mood connoting the feel good nature of our film which should also attract a mainstream audience as very few films which make people feel sad are targeted at mainstream audiences.

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

Our target audience is families. We decided upon this because of the majority of the real films cast would be made up of mostly children. We decide that because our film was a family film that the suitable age range for the audience of our film would be from ages 5 upwards. When creating the narrative of the film we had to consider how we were going to make the film entertaining for adults whilst keeping to the BBFC's certification criteria for a rated PG film. A way we could do this by incorporating innuendos that would be funny for adults but not for children as they would not get the joke. This has been executed perfectly in other PG family films such as Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

We also looked into how we could make enjoyable for both genders of the younger segment of out target audience. When doing this we decided that a good way of doing this would be to use actors from children's tv shows with a unisex target audience such as Disney's Ant Farm, where we found the actor who would play chuck in our film. Also using actors which they have seen on their tv could make the film more enjoyable for them as the actors are familiar to them. We have done the same with Hugh Laurie with regards to adults as he is in many tv shoes which adults would watch such as House.

When researching into the minds of our target audience we decide to release a survey on the Internet via surveymonkey.com to gain extra information into our audiences film interests. We got 21 replies and these were the the results we got from these people:

Film Interests Survey

These findings showed information such as their age, wether they were a fan of any of the 2 genres which made up our films hybrid genre of Family-Adventure and if they were fans of selected films in these genres.

Evaluation Question 3: What kind of media institution would distribute our product and why?

Or film is a mainstream film so it would ideally be distributed by a big mainstream company such as Warner Brothers, Universal or Walt Disney Pictures. This is because our product is one which is suited for a mainstream target audience because it fits into the genres of family and adventure.

 

If our film were to be distributed in real life then I think that Universal would be the best to do so. This is because they are one of the world biggest conglomerates and they have distributed many films in the same genre as ours such as The Lorax (2012) which is a recently released children’s film starring Zac Efron and Danny DiVito, and Jurassic Park (1993) which is in my opinion one of the greatest adventure films of all time! I would prefer to have Universal distribute our film because Disney produce and distribute more animated films and Warner Brothers haven’t distributed many adventure films.

 

We would also be able to ask for funding from Universal as they give $35m per film to working title which like us would be a vertically integrated company. However being vertically integrated, we wouldn’t receive too bigger income for the film because it would mostly go to companies higher up in the vertical integration. We know that our product would become recognised a lot quicker if we were with Universal and would make more money where as if we tried making our product independent because we wouldn’t of had the funding to spend extravagantly on the film’s production, marketing, distribution or exhibition.

 

I would want our product to be distributed in mainstream cinemas such as Odeon and cineworld because that is where our audience would go to see a film because these cinema chains are more family orientated that that of an art house. Another reason as to why these cinema chains are the ones we would like to distribute our film in is that these chains are the most popular so we would want our film being distributed to the most populated and known cinemas as there are more people watching our film.

Evaluation Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups? (G321)




 

Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does our media product use, develop or challenge forms and convections of real media products? (G321)

The generic convections which feature in our film opening include the use of kids as protagonists. Also the film is focused around a group of kids just like in Unaccompanied Minors (2006) and The Goonies (1985). There is also a comedy role in our film, Chuck. Just like Chunk from The Goonies and Timothy ‘Beef’ Wellington, Chuck is on the receiving end on the majority of the groups banter.

Our film opening just like that of the Goonies (1985) introduces the main kid actors in our film opening. Its characters are just like those in Unaccompanied Minors (2006) with regards to their personalities

The generic convections which feature in our film opening are the use of kids as protagonists, a comedy role and that the film is focused around a group of kids. These are all generic convections of family films as these convections can be found in other family films such as Ice Age (2002) and Home Alone (1990). An example of a film which like ours has a group of kids as protagonists is The Goonies (1985) where a group of kids go off in search of treasure. An example of a family film with a comedy role in it is Shrek (2001) which features donkey, voiced by Eddie Murphy, who is Shrek’s clumsy best friend. An example of another film which is focused around a group of kids is Unaccompanied Minors (2006) which like our film is based around 5 kids (3 boys and 2 girls).

An example of how our work has been influenced by other family film is the aspects of our cast. It is  made up of 5 kids, 3 boys and 2 girls, just like in Unaccompanied Minors (2006). The roles of the characters are also the same, (reading from left to right) first we have the ‘nerd’ then we have the popular girl,the girl who enjoys winding her friends up, the group leader, and the unfit one.

Another way which or film opening has been influenced by another film is the use of the kids coming down a hill on their bikes. Just like in The Goonies (1985).

                                   

Final Cut (G321)

This is our final cut. It now features production company's logos titles and improved colour corrections to to the ones in rough cut 2 as the footage to our film now looks even more warmer and vibrant. An example of these improved colour corrections is that the sky in the shot which shows our actors running towards a tree looks more natural, rather than a big blue streak across the screen. The music also plays all the way through our film opening making it even more like other film openings in our genre.

In the end we had to remove the dialogue from our final cut. This is because we could not find away round the crackling wind other than to remove it completely. I tried rerecording our actors voices and we tried to layer them up over our footage but the non-diagetic sound was not in sync with our actors lips making it look tacky. This is why we came to a group decision to remove the dialogue completely, which I personally found frustrating as I feel that it would of been better if we had the dialogue but we couldn't because the rerecorded dialogue was not in sync with our actors lips.

Jelly Baby Activity (G321)

In groups we produced our own film openings using post it notes and jelly babys. We did this to broaden our knowledge of the ordereing of film titles.