AS MEDIA STUDIES

EVALUATION
My film opening..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nxfgh_IWMUc

BY CARLAINA BREESE
 REPRESENTATION OF
SOCIAL GROUPS
This diagram demonstrates
the formation of social
representation relating to Also, it highlights the
factors of the production, different social groups
how the audience receive it that should be taken into
and it’s relevance to real life. consideration; Class, Age,
Displaying how they are Gender and Ethnicity.
linked together.

I found this to be a useful source of information when researching about the representation within
media products http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Modules/MC30820/represent.html
 STEREOTYPING
Signs, codes and conventions all play a major part in constructing
representations for social groups, as they all create meaning. For example, the
image of thick rimmed glasses, sweater vests and braces immediately
associates to “geeky” qualities, which we are able to recognise through the
ideology created.
THESE ARE THINGS WE HAD TO CONSIDER;

The way groups are presented is based upon stereotypical

concepts. These widely held views built about specific social
groups, or types of individuals are all commonly shared by
the public and so, if a production’s representation of social
groups fit the ideologies, they are more likely to achieve a
preferred viewing and satisfy the viewer.
REPRESENTATION WITHIN
OUR MEDIA PROJECT
In our media project, we created representation for two main
individuals in terms of age and gender;
A male and a female character in their mid 30’s to 40’s.

To represent them we decided to use older actors in our production in order to

make the overall appearance of it more convincing for the viewer, and therefore
satisfy their expectations of a married couple of a suitable age, ready to settle
down.
I think the use of older actors would also help us to attract an older audience as
they would find it more relatable, early 20’s to mid 40’s. However, we will also
maintain interest of younger audience members (15-20) as we know from our
questionnaires during research that films with the genre of romantic-tragedy
was popular among their age group, therefore suggesting that our film project
should appeal to them too.
 REPRESENTATION
MARRIAGE
Many woman consider the wedding gown as one of the most
important part of the ceremony, as so we felt it necessary to
include this significant feature of marriage into our
representation of it, satisfying audience expectations, and
making it more realistic.
The gown we used was an actual wedding dress of my mother’s, it
was of a traditional design, and white. The traditional design
indicates hat the wedding took place in the past. The aged video
effect we applied to the scene reinforces this idea, and also gives
the suggestion that is image is a recording taken by one of their
guests. Doing this also makes the audience feel like a member of
their family or friends attending the wedding, enabling them to
feel more of a connection. The colour of the dress being white is
a prominent aspect to signify innocence and purity that is often
associated with marriage.

We decided to recreate this scene following the traditional idea of a wedding ceremony, set in a church yard, and beneath the
arch way; these are both aspects which give connotations of marriage which would be recognised by our audience.
SHOTS FROM THE WEDDING SCENE
 INSTITUTION
From Wikipedia http://dictionary.sensagent.com/media+institution/en-en
/
“A media institution is an established, often profit-based organization, that deals in
the creation and distribution of advertising, entertainment and information
services.” Companies such as Walt Disney, Sony, The Warner Bros, Ofcom , the
BBC and Fox Entertainment, are all media institutions.

I am now going to look at the type of institute that may be involved in the
distribution and production of my film…
 PRODUCTION AND
DISTRIBUTION
To decide which type of institute might produce my film, I looked at the producer of a film
with a similar genre to mine; romantic tragedy. P.s I Love You fits this genre and is
produced by a company called Alcon Entertainment, which means that our film is likely to
take their interest too.
An American film
production company

Co-produced P.S Founded in 1997 by

I Love You in film producers
2007 with Broderick Johnson
Grosvenor Park and Andrew Kosove

Alcon Entertainment has developed

and financed films that are ultimately One of the major film
distributed by Warner Bros, following studios in America
a ten-year motion picture production
agreement. Meaning they are likely to Officially established in 1918 by
be the distributor for my film if Alcon Albert, Harry, Sam, and Jack
agree to produce it. Warner
 PRODUCTION AND
DISTRIBUTION Grosvenor Park has
raised over 5 billion
dollars for film
Grosvenor Park is a specialist financing and television
provider for film-financing in the production over 400
entertainment business that was projects
founded 25 years ago

Headquarters are based

in Hollywood, Los
Angeles, but they have
also established offices
in London
The fact that some offices are
locally established would make
it more convenient for us to
arrange meetings and would
improve communication
CONVENTIONS
JERSEY GIRL
OPENING
Jersey Girl starts off by building up
a sense of romantic intimacy
between a couple, but then, within
the first half an our, a twist is added
which destroys this image of them
together; immediately challenging
the conventions of a typical
romantic genre where the couple
would live happily ever after. The
film then goes on to express how
the male widow is left to cope with
the situation, developing into a
more specific story line.
I will now discuss how we used
this idea of challenging a
conventional romance film in our
CHALLENGING THE CONVENTIONS
COMPARED TO JERSEY GIRL
As well as P.S I Love You, our opening is similar to the one in Jersey
Girl with a few altering details. For instance, instead of
constructing a representation of the characters relationship as a
married couple then having this relationship tarnished after a
devastating incident, our opening starts immediately with a tragic
event giving the suggestion that the genre is action/thriller. The
audience have no emotional attachment to the character that dies,
however, we intended to use the after effects of this person’s death
to fabricate the romantic setting to our film, distancing ourselves
from the initial conceptions of the audience. By building up an
image of their relationship after; showing the wife’s response to his
death, I feel we are able to allow the audience to begin to develop a
connection, and empathise with the female character by letting
them recognise the extent of the loss she feels through the
following scenes, therefore enabling them to understand the
significance of the male character in the incident scene. In this
way, I feel we challenge the conventions of a typical romance
genre.
 PRELIMINARY TASK
The 180° Rule
definition - a basic
guideline in film 180° RULE
making that states that This shot within our
two characters (or other preliminary task is a
elements) in the same technique we learnt to
scene should always incorporate into our film
have the same left/right opening to show the
relationship to each relationship between a
other. character and an object in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/180_degree_rule the scene..
EFFECTIVENESS OF THE 180° SHOT
In our opening, we transferred our understanding of this shot and used
it to show the relationship between the character (Leanne) and a prop
(in this case, the wedding photo. )
By taking the shot from each perspective the audience are able to
understand what the object is, what it represents, and her response to
it.
Here, she appears pensive, and sad. Suggesting that the wedding photo
brings back memories which evoke sadness and grief.
 CLOSE-UP ZOOM
In our preliminary task we intended to use this
shot to intensify emotions. This shot is much
more personal and focused on the facial
expression.

Purpose of a close-up;
Close-ups are used in many ways. Most often,
they are used as cutaways from a more distant
shot to show a deeper level of detail, such as
characters' emotions, or some intricate activity
with their hands.
The aim of a zoom is to draw attention to a
For example we have used this in our opening specific detail or action. We used this in our
in the wedding scene to create a sense of opening to bring a focus onto a wedding
intimacy between the married couple as they picture for the purpose of leading on to the
are set in such a tight frame, highlighting their next scene..
happiness and closeness together.
 CLOSE-UP ZOOM
Two other ways we used close-up shots in our film.. This scene begins with a close up
of Leanne, immediately
conveying her emotion and
creating intimacy between her
and the audience. Then, the zoom
is used to gradually reveal a
wider shot of the subject to give
more detail about what she is
In this shot we took into This close up shot of doing, leading on to the rest of
consideration the the characters face, it the scene.
camera angle, and draws attention to his
proximity from the facial expression
subject. which reflects panic
We intentionally made and fear. Showing that
the position of the he is not comfortable
camera crooked and in the situation.
askew as it gives the
impression that he has
fallen awkwardly.
 OTHER TECHNIQUES
Since the preliminary task, we were able to develop our skills further and used them directly in our
film.

PANNING SHOT
To follow the character through the action..
I think we were successful in making the
transitions smooth, and coherent to make
the movement seem continuous.
EXTREME SOMETHING SHOT
We decided to take this shot from a distance, giving more
emphasis to the surroundings and a sense of perspective,
giving the impression that he is insignificant and lost in the
environment. He also appears small and weak, highlighting
his sense of vulnerability.

HAND-HELD SHOT
The purpose of the
handheld shot was to make
the image shaky as the
Definition; audience are experiencing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand-held_camera the action of his
“Hand-held camera or hand-held shooting is a film perspective of him running.
and video technique in which a camera is literally The effect we applied
held in the camera-operator's hands--as opposed to emphasises the shakiness
being placed on a tripod. The result is an image that and makes it obscure.
is perceptibly shakier than that of a tripod-mounted
Suggesting that he is
camera.”
disorientated and confused.
MEASURING POPULARITY
To get an idea of the sort of reception romance films receive, and their popularity amongst
viewers, I will research a famous romantic genre based movie looking at profits, awards,
etc. From this I can judge the audience attraction that our film could possibly obtain.

TITANIC

It was nominated for 14 Academy Awards at the 1997 Oscars.

Also at the Golden Globe Awards of 1997, it was nominated for a
further 8 awards, including Best Dramatic Picture and Best
Screenplay.
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1800026398/awards
Of which, they won a total of 15. The achievement of winning
such a vast number of major film awards demonstrates the scale
of popularity it gained as one of the most iconic films of all time
with an outstanding gross-profit of $1,842,879,955, world wide.
(Second highest profit made on record) again reinforcing the
significant impact it had on it’s audience.
 ADVERTISEMENT
In terms of advertising our film I recommend the use of cross convergence through
other media products such as;
Billboards, television trailers, magazines, newspapers, radio.
I think this would help us to raise awareness about your film and therefore increase
our chances of drawing in a larger audience as if they are familiar with our film from
previous encounters across the media, they will be more inclined to want to see it.
Also, the fact that newspapers will appeal to a different age groups to the magazines,
and the magazine’s audience may differ to those for the radio stations we’ve chosen to
promote our film, it would mean we would be advertising our film to a vast range of
potential audience members, essentially, increasing the over all audience will attract.