Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The genre we chose to use for our film is romance and drama. Unlike any other genre, they also have certain codes and conventions which the audience may witness often and would help them figure out what might happen next. The main topics that are involved would be: the characters, story line, camera shots, editing, titling, setting, costume and lighting. There are also theories which relate to these topics. Moreover, the genre itself mainly targets the female gender and although drama can target both genders, the movie can sometimes help spark/ maipulate female emotion. This overall makes the film successful because the movie/ plot managed to move or create a person's feeling.

This genre looks at the feeling of love but also the conflicts involved during a relationship. Todorov's narrative theory links in with the storyline during the first 3minutes of our film. The narrative theory follows these stages: 


For our film we specifically begin the story at the disruption stage and then goes back the equilibrium which then explains everything and then goes back to the present. We did this by starting the film with a close up of some items in their house which then lead to an argument scene. Apart from the background sound, we first hear a muffled conversation between the two from the other room. After Jamie Reel (the woman) walks into the room where the audience can see them, they continue their argument but because Ruben Goldberg (the man) couldn't handle the situation he decided to leave. Therefore we did challenge this form and convention because it didn't follow these 5 stages in order and we did this because it instantly makes the audience want to know what happens next as soon as the movie starts. 


In addition, we used other forms of coding like the enigma code. In relation to Todorov's narrative theory because we start at the disruption stage it makes the audience question too. For example, because it starts off in a negative direction the audience may question, how/ why did it come to that only after they realise that it was the present day and not the past. Because of this it makes the audience want to find out.

Another code would be cultural coding. Through the use of costume and possibly location, the audience can tell that this movie is urban. For example, they both wear jackets that are sold in high street stores which is part of the latest fashion. By having a movie that suggests urbanism, it makes the audience feel relatable and they may have an idea of what to expect as the city is a mysterious but productive place where anything can happen as it is densely populated. 

Moreover, the last code that develops and challenges the forms and conventions of romantic/ drama would be the symbolic code. This code relates to everything in the movie. For example, the characters represent an interracial couple that functions like any other and this suggests equality and positivity. In addition, certain camera shots suggests that the couple is close. For example, during the argument scene when Ruben grabs Jamie's arm it shows intimacy and that they once loved and cherished each other. Furthermore, the white titling suggests that their love was also once innocent and hopeful but white is also the colour of peace. Because of this representation there is hope that the couple will work things out. 

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In the recording above, I talk about gender/age, ethnicity, and regional identity. These topics relate to our film and I wanted to clearly express that our film represents equality. I also link our film in with Hairspray (2007) because it involves both discrimination and romance and overcoming hardships. 

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The media institution that might distribute our film would be Entertainment Film Distributors. We chose this company because they have made successful films that have been produced with low budgets. An example of a successful film that this company distributed would be Something Borrowed making a $4 million profit and The Notebook making a $35 million profit. However, because this distribution company helps distribute British Independent films it might become a risk and end up losing more money than their budget. An example of a film that lost money would be Romeo & Juliet (2013) They originally had a budget of $24 million but only gained above $3 million at the box office. In addition, we chose this distribution because there HQ is located in the UK, this is beneficial because we can easily travel and meet up to work together and help improve the film so that it sells. They will also help us market the film through the use of traditional marketing techniques like: billboards, bus displays, and posters. In addition, the film can be featured on Spotify adverts, the radio or on their website. 

C.A.M.M Productions is also an independent UK production company that specialises in producing films like 'Never Ending.' We named this production company using our groups' last names and we re-arranged it to sound as if it was the first few letters of the word 'camera.' In comparison to 500 Days of Summer, we decide on having a $4 million budget. Because our film doesn't consist of using CGI, SFX, or A-listed Actors, our budget calculation was low. As our company mainly looks at the romantic/ drama genre, we focus on portraying young couples that not only has highs in their relationship but also lows. We are also interested in breaking conventions; for example, usually romantic/ drama films have white actors but in our film we have an interracial couple that works the same way as any other relationship. As this company has limited budgets, in order to help distribute the film, we will stick to online marketing using the social media sites like twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Premier
500 Days of Summer - 62nd Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland 2009
Never Ending - 69th Edinburgh International Film festival 2016

As it is an independent UK film we have decided to keep it local so that our main supporters keep in contact with the movies we make.

Release Date
500 Days of Summer - July 17th 2009 (US and Canada) and September 2nd 2009 (UK)
Never Ending - July 8th 2016 (US and Canada) and August 29th 2016 (UK)

By having that release date, our target audience will most likely go see it as it is during the summer and the release date in the UK is a bank holiday. This movie will be screening in popular cinemas like Odeon or Cineworld but for only a couple of weeks. This date is significant because these cinemas also screen on bank holidays. It might also be screening in independent cinemas like the Regent Street Cinema or the Everyman Cinema in Baker street as it is great for couples however, as they are an independant cinema they may not screen during a bank holiday therefore we hope to negotiate a price that will allow them to screen it for a couple of weeks. 

DVD and Blu-Ray release
500 Days of Summer - December 22nd 2009 (USA) 
Never Ending - November 29th 2016 (USA)

Although the DVD and Blu-Ray release is only months away from the cinema release, we couldn't leave it to the new year. This movie can be watched during the Christmas holidays where couple are most likely spending time together. 

Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

As our target audience are mainly female teens/ young adults we found that it may be suitable to rate it as a 12A. For a 12A movie this is what the movie can contain:

In relation to our film, we feel that this is the best age certificate for our film because it only displays the pros and cons of a couple without the explicit bits. In comparison to 500 Days of Summer, which was rated as a PG it contained many things that could've been classified as a 12A. The website commonsensemedia.org supports this. This is a review website that parents/ kids can rate the movie as to what they think is appropriate and whether they recommend the movie to certain ages.

Moreover, we want our audience to feel emotion and is not afraid to claim that they just want a cheesy love story that may/ may not end up a happy ending. Because of this we named our film 'Never Ending' which suggests that the love cycle is always going round and that people will always end up falling in love at least once with a person or something. Our plot was constructed to make people feel like they can relate and therefore this is our potential audience.

Q5. How did you attract/address your target audience?

With the audience research we conducted, we used this in our final project to attract/ address the audience. For example, we specifically chose the location because its one of the romantic/ drama codes and conventions. By showing where they live and what kind of cafe they went to, it tells the audience a little bit more about the characters. The house suggests that they're middle class people and that they don't own anything expensive. The cafe was decent compared to the fancy restaurant convention and it was also suitable to the genre as it was an indie styled cafe. Another example would be the dialogue. In the second scene we wanted them to say things that seemed like they were really interested in each other, therefore we added constant questions. In addition, we didnt really want to give away too much information for the audience because this was only the opening sequence of the film.

Audience Reaction

To gather information and feedback I created a questionnaire on SurveyMonkey.com and used slideshare to present them. Here are my...



In my opinion, I think that these audience responses relate to what I think about our final project. For example, I think that if we had a wider variety of camera shots during the dialogue scenes and had less static shots, the editing and transitions would've gone much better. Another shot that we could've added during any dialogue is a close up to an extreme close up so that it can show importance to what they're saying. In addition, we could have done a tracking shot at the end where they were walking too. Because we had limited sources I feel that the audio would've gone well if we had a mic and if we used 3 cameras when we were first shooting.

Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Whilst using the technologies that we had, I have learnt how effective framing is but it would've looked better if the two characters were positioned exactly on the left/ right side of the frame and whether there was equal background space above their heads. To do this we could've had the grid view on the camera. In my opinion, I liked how our group worked together because everyone in my group had different strong points; therefore we were able to work efficiently and productively. For example, Connie drew the storyboards and this helped a lot because when we followed it we stuck to the camera shots that we decided. During the filming process, we had different perspectives as to what looked right and this was good because we could compare and contrast these ideas which could improve on the framing. 

Because editing is one of my strong points, I was entitled to work on the dialogue scene. It was easy and long to do, however, if it weren't for my group I may have missed out bits where I could improve. For example, because we had trouble recording the audio due to the wind noise in the background, we filmed on one camera and recorded the audio during the dialogue scene, it was difficult for me to time it right and sometimes it looked wrong but my group helped. We all did a fair amount of editing, for example, Harry did most of the titling and Connie and Eddy worked on the first scene and the main title and the last shot of the couple walking. 

Here's a list of websites and tools I have used:

www.blogger.com - Official blog site, containing work
www.photojointer.net - To make screenshot collages
Paint - To crop and adjust the pixel size of each image
www.imdb.com - For movie research
www.prezi.com/ www.slideshare.net - To present research/ ideas
Audacity and www.soundcloud.com - To record and post
www.makeagif.com - For making gifs that relates to our final piece
www.youtube.com - To upload videos like our draft/ final and things that linked with the research I have found
www.surveymonkey.co.uk - To gather feedback and evaluation
Windows movie maker/ Final cut pro - Two forms of editing software 

Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

The video above is of a group discussion based on this question. Apart from all the points said in the video, I think that we've learnt a lot from lighting and how it affects our film. Originally, in the preliminary task, we had to stick with natural lighting and for some shots we could've improved by adding back lighting or light on a certain part of the face. In comparison to the preliminary task, for our final film, we also had limited lighting equipment. We could only use natural lighting but we made sure it was bright enough to see the actors' faces. In addition, although we had to use natural lighting, positioning the cameras in certain places helped; it was neither too bright or too dark.