How did you attract/address your target audience?

In order to find out who was my target audience I conducted a survey during the beginning stages of my research. From looking at the results I concluded that my main audience was women between 16 – 35. Although when the product was finally created I found that my piece also attracted an older audience, including some men. I found that when watching the piece men in the age range of 16 – 25 also found the opening enjoyable, with them commenting that they would most likely watch the film because they said that the sense of realism made the narrative much more believable able. One of the main selling points of the piece is that it is in the social realist genre which at the moment is becoming a large genre. To try and get our main target audience to watch the film we needed to incorporate conventions of the genre that the audience would be able to recognize so that the film would most likely attract a bigger audience. First of all one of the biggest conventions we used was to have a realistic but gripping plot for the opening, which would not only appeal to the audience but also to entice them to watch the rest of the film. I feel one way in which I attracted my audience was from the actress used to play the protagonist. This is because she is not famous, so she will not have played any other parts which could distract the audience. Also because she is a normal looking girl which is something the audience feel that they can relate to. Another way in which we attracted an audience was to set an enigma. We did this from not revealing the whole storyline, and left many questions unanswered. Finally we found a very good way to attract an audience was to shock them. We done this from setting the scene as calm, and portraying the protagonist as innocent, and then shocked them that she had been sexually abused by her father.    

Who would be the audiecne for your media product?

Who would be the audience for your media

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How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In my film opening the protagonist is played by 17 year old Antonia. Throughout the sequence is she dressed in a plain white dress. We chose to have her in white because we thought that it symbolised vulnerability and innocence, as she was not fully clothed it meant that there was less of a physical barrier between her and the audience. From the character being coded as vulnerable we thought that it would highly increase the chance of the audience having sympathies towards her. In Girl Interrupted the protagonist Susanna, is also dressed in simple clothes. When trying to cast and create the character of Olivia, we tried to base her on Susanna. Although in some ways we thought that it would add more to the character of Olivia if we subverted certain character traits. For example, Susanna openly smokes, but we felt that if Olivia did this then it would take away from her sense of innocence and youth, and have connotations of rebellion. Another way in which Olivia differs from Susanna is the age difference. We chose to cast Olivia younger because i thought it made the narrative storyline which contains abuse seem more shocking to the audience and have a much deeper impact. Also from her being younger she would maybe attract a younger audience. Where both of the characters are within the locations are similar also. Both of them have scenes, or implied scenes that they are within a mental institution. From this it will suggest that both of the characters are mentally unstable and need support to get through life, therefore adding to their sense of vulnerability.

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

Throughout the making of my AS product we used many different types of software's and technologies, these involved:

Blogspot.com - This is where i posted documents, images and videos about the process of this project. For example research tasks and production and editing stages.

Google.com - This is a search engine which we used for product research and also when looking for certain tutorials on certain technologies. We were able to look for useful links, video's and images

Youtube.com - helped me begin my research into film openings so I could analyse them. It also became of great help when finding a easy ways to set up a location and how to represent certain characters from following conventions.

Dafont.com - When looking at credits for the opening we wanted an interesting font, this is one of the places we searched as the font are not copyright and free

Final Cut Express - Was the programme we used to edit the film. Filters can be added, along with a variety of sounds like non diagetic music and voiceovers.

Tripods - We used the tripod to keep the camera still and not shaky as it would give the film opening an overall more professional look, although sometimes we used it held hand either to do a tracking shot or because the tripod would not be able to fit within a limited space. The tripod could be extended to a range of different heights and positions. 

Panasonic camera - It was used to record our piece and to review footage. It was easy to use and had certain features like a focus pull.

Still camera - This was used to capture images for our blog and also for research when looking in to different locations.

From working on this film it gave me the opportunity to use all of this equipment and technology. I now know how to use it with confidence and also use all of its features. The piece of technology i most enjoyed was Final Cut express. This is because i feel it gave me the creative freedom and also there was many features to play about with. I also think blogger was the most effective way to track and record my records.

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

What kind of media institution might distribute your product ?

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

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

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Audience screening

To get feedback and to see what the target audience thought of our filming opening, i held and audience screening. This to us was a very good was a getting constructive feedback. For the screening i produced a questionnaire so i could find out so i could get written feedback as well as verbal. From combining verbal and written feedback, these were the main pints that we concluded.

• The voice over was a little too long for the footage.
• They really like the message of the voice over because thats what gave the film narrative, also thought that the actual dialogue used was very clearly worded.
• Most of the shots were long shots, and the close up that we did have were a little to blunt, because it was just the actress staring into the camera.  
• Thought that we used a variety of shot types, which made the footage more visually appealing. 
• Thought that the mise-en-scene worked really well and was constructed well, and all of the audience said that they really like the location. 

After getting this feedback it was decided that we needed to go and re-shoot. To do this i drew up new story boards, and decided which shots to cut from the old footage. After getting the new footage, and editing it in with the old one, it became the final film opening.