How does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our media product uses conventions of a romance by showing a race against time to show emotions of love, and we chose to create a character that is representative of the genre in a way that the character embodies things that are associated with love, for example art, as when asked what characteristics the main character should have, participants of our questionnaire suggested ‘creative’ ‘quirky’ ‘carefree’ and ‘shy’. We also chose to use a female lead character, as our questionnaire results said that 70% of participants preferred a female main character. However in a way our main female character challenged conventions of the romance genre in a way that she was not stereotypically the ‘average’ woman. We wanted to challenge this convention in order to provide a different way for the audience to use the media for diversion and personal relationships.
Another way we challenged a convention of the romance genre is that out film location is at the beach, when typical romance films are based in the city. We chose to use the beach, particularly Brighton Pier for it being an iconic place in England, therefore many people will be able to use our product for a realistic type of diversion in terms of location.
25/04/2010
24/04/2010
RESEARCH FOR SLIDE SHOW
Theories
As part of our research we looked at theories on media. One was the uses and gratifications theory, where individuals use media for diversion, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance. Therefore we wanted our film opening to provide some of those factors to entice the audience, we included diversion, personal relationships and personal identity through the characters, mise en scene and location.
Another theory we looked at was the reception theory, the idea that different people receive and interpret a text differently and that their individual circumstances (gender, class, age, ethnicity) affect their decoding of what is encoded by the producers . To avoid major differences in readings of the same code, we used recognised codes and conventions to draw upon audience expectations relating to aspects such as genre and mise en scene, and therefore created a certain amount of agreement on what the code means.
Romance as our chosen genre
The main narrative of a romantic genre follows a construction of finding new love, or falling in love. Which is usually centred around a central woman or male character. Often emotions are dealt with that target the female market as they are put into a position to feel emotional from the narrative of the film, as they can usually relate to the main female characters situations and issues that they express around relationships and love. This is an audience pleasure as audiences can seek gratification needs from the media, by using the uses and gratification model. For example audiences can build a relationship or identify themselves with the female character.
After analysing some romance films such as Bridget Jones’ Diary, The Time Traveller’s Wife and Love actually we found there were similarities:
-The leading female character is looking for love, or falls in love, or is heartbroken but saved by love. (narrative)
-Iconography /misenscene, and camera angles are similar – for example the couple running up to each other and embracing in love as the camera seeks a close up shot of their faces
-A race against time, to express emotions of love
-Non diegetic music that creates a climax and tense atmosphere
-Generic types, characters that are associated with the genre. For example in Bridget Jones’ Diary there is the stereotypical good looking business man, and Bridget is the stereotypical average English woman
As part of our research we looked at theories on media. One was the uses and gratifications theory, where individuals use media for diversion, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance. Therefore we wanted our film opening to provide some of those factors to entice the audience, we included diversion, personal relationships and personal identity through the characters, mise en scene and location.
Another theory we looked at was the reception theory, the idea that different people receive and interpret a text differently and that their individual circumstances (gender, class, age, ethnicity) affect their decoding of what is encoded by the producers . To avoid major differences in readings of the same code, we used recognised codes and conventions to draw upon audience expectations relating to aspects such as genre and mise en scene, and therefore created a certain amount of agreement on what the code means.
Romance as our chosen genre
The main narrative of a romantic genre follows a construction of finding new love, or falling in love. Which is usually centred around a central woman or male character. Often emotions are dealt with that target the female market as they are put into a position to feel emotional from the narrative of the film, as they can usually relate to the main female characters situations and issues that they express around relationships and love. This is an audience pleasure as audiences can seek gratification needs from the media, by using the uses and gratification model. For example audiences can build a relationship or identify themselves with the female character.
After analysing some romance films such as Bridget Jones’ Diary, The Time Traveller’s Wife and Love actually we found there were similarities:
-The leading female character is looking for love, or falls in love, or is heartbroken but saved by love. (narrative)
-Iconography /misenscene, and camera angles are similar – for example the couple running up to each other and embracing in love as the camera seeks a close up shot of their faces
-A race against time, to express emotions of love
-Non diegetic music that creates a climax and tense atmosphere
-Generic types, characters that are associated with the genre. For example in Bridget Jones’ Diary there is the stereotypical good looking business man, and Bridget is the stereotypical average English woman
EVALUATION QUESTIONS
Media evaluation questions and answers
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The current overbearing representation of teenagers has connotations of criminality, drugs, being out of control, alcohol and trouble-seeking. We aimed to represent teenagers as mature and ‘average’ but with slightly younger characteristics-such as lack of time keeping from the female protagonist and time lapse shots of the male protagonist waiting.
Our media product uses different techniques to represent an ‘indie’(which is short for individual, creative) style social group through sound, editing, camera shots and mise en scene. The female protagonist is dressed mellow colours and floral patterns, this represents the current ‘indie’ style of females. She is surrounded by artwork in the establishing shot, art is a main focus of ‘indie’ for its expressiveness. The male protagonist is also dressed in current ‘indie’ style, both of the characters are not dressed in designer clothes or well known brand names because the term ‘indie’ embodies not being mainstream.
The social group is also represented through our choice of soundtrack, the fact that we used music from an unsigned and uncopyrighted shows this in itself, however the style of music is a mix of acoustic, folk, and indie to represent the social group.
The editing effects we used were sketch-like for the credits, art is typically seen as a factor of the ‘indie’ social group as it is a form of creativity and expression, and that is what the term ‘indie’ is based on, being individual and expressive.
Our camera shots also are art focused, as they are bright and colourful, and the location is at the seaside which is a place of natural beauty, another factor of ‘indie’.
What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
We have learned a lot and come to have a good understanding of the whole process involved in creating a movie sequence, using the camera, tripod, imovie software on the apple mac and much more. Operating the camera and tripod was not very hard, though we learned that it could be difficult to align the camera to take a level shot, or that the tripod was sometimes stiff. We accommodated to this by taking extra time to make sure the camera was in suitable positioning and turn the camera while holding it, not just using the handle on the tripod.
We also learned how to use the program imovie on the apple mac. Once we learned which keys to press to perform actions it was fairly easy to edit our camera shots. We also made use of the video fx options on our work with the credits. However sometimes the mac froze when we had been doing a large amount of editing, so we had to wait until it worked again.
Another program we learned to use on the mac was garageband. This is software that we could use to make a soundtrack for our product, we made a sequence of music but in the end we decided that it was best to use music from a band because it was done professionally and sounded better for our movie opening.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The current overbearing representation of teenagers has connotations of criminality, drugs, being out of control, alcohol and trouble-seeking. We aimed to represent teenagers as mature and ‘average’ but with slightly younger characteristics-such as lack of time keeping from the female protagonist and time lapse shots of the male protagonist waiting.
Our media product uses different techniques to represent an ‘indie’(which is short for individual, creative) style social group through sound, editing, camera shots and mise en scene. The female protagonist is dressed mellow colours and floral patterns, this represents the current ‘indie’ style of females. She is surrounded by artwork in the establishing shot, art is a main focus of ‘indie’ for its expressiveness. The male protagonist is also dressed in current ‘indie’ style, both of the characters are not dressed in designer clothes or well known brand names because the term ‘indie’ embodies not being mainstream.
The social group is also represented through our choice of soundtrack, the fact that we used music from an unsigned and uncopyrighted shows this in itself, however the style of music is a mix of acoustic, folk, and indie to represent the social group.
The editing effects we used were sketch-like for the credits, art is typically seen as a factor of the ‘indie’ social group as it is a form of creativity and expression, and that is what the term ‘indie’ is based on, being individual and expressive.
Our camera shots also are art focused, as they are bright and colourful, and the location is at the seaside which is a place of natural beauty, another factor of ‘indie’.
What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
We have learned a lot and come to have a good understanding of the whole process involved in creating a movie sequence, using the camera, tripod, imovie software on the apple mac and much more. Operating the camera and tripod was not very hard, though we learned that it could be difficult to align the camera to take a level shot, or that the tripod was sometimes stiff. We accommodated to this by taking extra time to make sure the camera was in suitable positioning and turn the camera while holding it, not just using the handle on the tripod.
We also learned how to use the program imovie on the apple mac. Once we learned which keys to press to perform actions it was fairly easy to edit our camera shots. We also made use of the video fx options on our work with the credits. However sometimes the mac froze when we had been doing a large amount of editing, so we had to wait until it worked again.
Another program we learned to use on the mac was garageband. This is software that we could use to make a soundtrack for our product, we made a sequence of music but in the end we decided that it was best to use music from a band because it was done professionally and sounded better for our movie opening.
31/01/2010
Theories
In order to put a message across to the audience and present them with concepts to consider, we need to think about what the audience is expecting, and how they will interpret our film opening:
Uses and Gratifications-Reseachers have come up with the idea that different individuals might use media for a number of purposes:
Reception Theory- In the 1980s and 1990s research was done on the way different people received and interpreted a text, and how their individual circumstances (gender, class, age, ethnicity) affected their reading. The research was based on Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model of the relationship between text and audience - the text is encoded by the producer, and decoded by the reader, and there can be major differences between two different readings of the same code. However, by using recognised codes and conventions, and by drawing upon audience expectations relating to aspects such as genre and use of stars, the producers can position the audience and therefore create a certain amount of agreement on what the code means. This is known as a preferred reading.
This means that we need take a look at what certain types of clothing, items and locations mean to the general audience to make sure our message is not completely misinterpreted
Uses and Gratifications-Reseachers have come up with the idea that different individuals might use media for a number of purposes:
- Diversion - escape from everyday problems and routine
- Personal Relationships - using the media for emotional and other interaction, eg substituting soap operas for family life
- Personal Identity - finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values from texts
- Surveillance - Information which could be useful for living eg weather reports, financial news, holiday bargains
Reception Theory- In the 1980s and 1990s research was done on the way different people received and interpreted a text, and how their individual circumstances (gender, class, age, ethnicity) affected their reading. The research was based on Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model of the relationship between text and audience - the text is encoded by the producer, and decoded by the reader, and there can be major differences between two different readings of the same code. However, by using recognised codes and conventions, and by drawing upon audience expectations relating to aspects such as genre and use of stars, the producers can position the audience and therefore create a certain amount of agreement on what the code means. This is known as a preferred reading.
This means that we need take a look at what certain types of clothing, items and locations mean to the general audience to make sure our message is not completely misinterpreted
Typical factors of a Romace film
Hey, can you 3 take a quick look at this:
http://www.filmsite.org/romancefilms.htm
(bear in mind it's an american site)
Conclusions are:
Our female protagonist is a relaxed teen character engrossed in the idea of love, and her life is a mix of all things associated with it (photography, art, nature). Little does she know that love in the form of our lead male has been within her reach for a long time...or has it?
http://www.filmsite.org/romancefilms.htm
(bear in mind it's an american site)
Conclusions are:
- For our plot we need obstacles between the male & female protagonists being together, as our genre is brit/romance we need to keep it relatable to the general british audience at least
- We want to keep everything as realistic as possible yet still providing entertainment, brit films show life in the raw, so we don't want anything outrageous
- Romance is our main focus, not drama, not comedy or anything else, however these should still be included in order to emphasise romance
- The two actors need to have good chemistry to make the story believable, so we need to ensure our actors are comfortable around each other
Our female protagonist is a relaxed teen character engrossed in the idea of love, and her life is a mix of all things associated with it (photography, art, nature). Little does she know that love in the form of our lead male has been within her reach for a long time...or has it?
27/01/2010
Male Characters Costuming.
After looking at different colours of costuming we came to the conclusion that we would like our MALE character to be dressed in RED and also FASHIONABLY.
We hope that by dressing our character in red this will represent
- Love
- Lust
- Possible Danger
- Energy
- Passion
We hope that by dressing our character fashionably this will
- keep our film current
- make sure our male character seems attractive to our audience
- ensure the audience empathises with our main female protagonist
RED CHECKED SHIRT
Ideally we will dress our character in a red checked shirt. Not only for the use of the 'red' but also as shirts represent a formal appearance. However by using a red checked shirt we create the right balance between formality and informality.
DARK SLIM JEANS
Pairing jeans with a shirt again create the right balance between formality and informality. The use of dark jeans again may represent the idea of 'darkness' and 'danger'. Also, dark jeans are very flattering on men and therefore stimulating our stereotype for male roles in romance movies. Finally, dark jeans are also fashionable at the moment and will consequently keep our film current and trendy.
BLACK TRAINERS/PLIMSOLES
We would like to dress our character in black trainers or a variation of plimsoles. This is mainly because they fit with the rest of the outfit and fit with the current fashion and theme of dark colours.
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