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

From out Preliminary task, this project has been much more stressful and time consuming. For example, there was far more complications than the last project, and was far more difficult using other students who weren't in our media group. This was because we had limited time to complete the filming, and the extras also didnt have as much time as us. As well as complications while filming, like messing up the script and forgetting to say the right thing. Also, we came across many times that other groups wanted to take out the cameras the same time as our group, so this was an issue at times. We also had some organisation problems, as none of our group were that well at organising.

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

From this production, I have learned many lessons about the equipment, organisation and skills. While creating our film, we came across numerous problems about the equipment, for example, there were many times when our group wanted to book the camera out, or use the edit

suite, but another group had booked it out before hand. As a group, we therefore became limited to the times we could film or edit, and this was also very time consuming, as there was many shot to log and as we re-filmed some scenes and shots. Also, I found that we had to get a lot of help from a teacher with the editing suite, as we found all the processes confusing and we counldnt remembre some of the ways to do different processes. This was mainly because we only had an hour or two slot twice a week or so, and was difficult to remember.

I found also that there was many documents that we had forgotten how to lay out, such as the treatment and the shot list, but we found our preliminary task sheets and worked out how to set them out.

Another piece of equipment that not only I, but most of my group, found difficult to use was the blogger. As this was a new website, I was unfamiliar with it at first, but over time, I got used to it and knew my way around.

How did you attract your audience?

As our product is set in a school, this immediately brings in the audience in the range on 12-18, as they themselves are at school, so they are familiar with the setting and can relate to the environment. They can relate to the fallings out through friendships, however there is also a niche audience, through homosexuality. We have used a homosexual antagonist. as this will bring in a niche audience, and is also conversive, as thi is rarely done in films. Curiosity too will bring in another audience. As we used both male and female characters, this brings in both of these audiences in, and this is therefore not biased. Age is another factor, that brings in audiences, ad

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our main target audience would be teens and adults, as this is based around teens, but looks at more deeper situations that adults would want to watch. We can get female audiences by the delicate plot of our film, and the main characters, as they can relate to the female character and can relate to the friendships within the film. We can grab the male audience of the film from also the plot of the film, and the comical side of it too. The adult audience can relate to times when they were at school, and maybe can get lost in the character and environment of the film, as they can relate to times they were at school. Also our film covers a delicate and not very widely used, and this can attract audiences, as this is rarely seen in films.

Also, the genre of our film, romantic comedy, will attract audiences that enjoy this type of film too.

How does your media product present particular social groups?

As our film was based around school, and there is a clear distinction between the 6th formers and the lower years, by their dress code. The 6th formers were wearing smartly dressed, and differed from gender and the day.

We have make sure that we have had a range of different stereotypical characters in our product, such as the 'bad boy' image of the character Alfie, for example by texting in class. We also have a caring, happy but emotional character, and this is Emily. She walks off when Arthur is ignoring her.

There is also a clue as to the social group in the music, as this is stereotypically seen as teens as this is rocky, upbeat and happy.

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

In our product, the structure of sequences follows the conventional ways of an opening sequence. We wanted to keep along the same lines as other romantic comedies, as the audience will then be able to recognise the genre and identify easily with the characters and the plot. Some things we kept the same were the introduction of characters. One way we did this, was by having a voice over for the character of Arthur, as this was an interesting and different way, and goes against the conventions. This therefore challenges the conventions of Romantic comedies. This would therefore capture the younger audience, as it is a more up-to-date way of using technology. We also created enigmas for the rest of the film and grabs the audience with a thrilling plot. If these were not included, the audience wouldn't want to watch the rest of the film. To get this information about what the audience likes, dislikes and needs, we studied other films of the same genre and copying these into our film.

In our product, we wanted to achieve a light hearted and obviously teen based opening sequence. We achieved this by use of Mise-en-scene. For example, the clothing. This was obvious to the audience the age range of the film. and the time period too. This also gave the audience incite into the characters. For example, Arthur numerously wore a long black coat, hiding his identity behind clothing. Also Alfie shows his layed back attitude by wearing light coloured shirts with the sleeves rolled up. These micro elements add to the overall style of presentation. You can also find the music shows the time period and the genre; this is a rocky, upbeat and happy song from unsigned bands, and this can show an early sign to the audience these elements, and set them ready for the rest of the film. Another micro element that is seen is the setting, this automatically shows that the film is based around school, and therefore shows the main target audience. From other media films we looked at, we had seen how these micro and macro elements can help show the audience the genre and time period by these factors, so we took this into account when getting ready.

When in the editing suite, we chose to use a small red font for the production name, to make the name stand out against a black background. This was to create a dramatic effect for the production, and this dramatic effect gets the audience ready for the film, and shows them that the film will have this affect on them too. However, we used a white outlined lettering to show the names of the actors and actresses, as this doesn't draw the attention away from the film too much, as they were conventionally shown while the actors were talking and acting.

We decided as a group to do a teen Rom-com with a twist, as we found not many films with this type of story line with the genre. We also chose this genre, as our group is surrounded by the target audience and this would thus make it easier to find additional information about what they need and what they want, and we can get this information first hand. Also, as we ourselves are the same age as the target audience, we know already what our age want, therefore making it easier to attract the audience. Our film goes against conventional genres slightly, as we are confronting a delicate subject about homosexuality, and this is rarely seen in films.

Through our pre-production, we had many ideas about what enigmas would grab the attention of the target audience, and this was quite easy to do once we had decided on the plot of our film. We challenged the forms by creating enigmas around the confusion of the main character's homosexuality, in a way that the audience laughs at the situation, but not to the extent that the audience find his homosexuality an issue; this was not what we wanted. We have also done additional research and seen from films how they have Incorporated enigmas, by what the characers say, and the situations they put themselves in, and we Incorporated this into our script and production.

We tried to introduce the main characters first, so the audience would know the antagonist character, and this is conventional, as this happens in all films. We did this by having the main character, Arthur, do a voice over telling the audience his name, and saying his school too. This is not the conventional way to introduce characters, however we felt that we needed this edge to help capture our target audience. This too was used to introduce the other main characters, Emily and Alfie, through Arthur's voice over. Another way we introduced the characters, was through edited lettering on the screen, informing the audience the actors name.

In our production, we tried to use a variety of camera angles, but keeping them natural, as we want to make the film believable and relatable. We tried to use a wide range of shots too, to show that our film was action packed. We used mostly conventional shots, like medium long and long shots. We used other camera shots such as panning, as this makes a change for the audience, to keep them interested. We also used a conventional establishing shot. These also help show we have learned from films we have studied about conventions of an opening sequence, as they have all included these shots and angles, and we have also learned how different shots can connote different meanings. For example, a lower shot onto a person shows their insignificance and makes the audience see them as a lower status, whereas a high angle shot up to a character can show they have more importance and have a higher status. We did not use this in our project, as we wanted to show everyone as equals, so we used level shots of the characters and had shots with everyone in it, to show they all have the same importance and status.

We tried to have a variety of sounds in our production, as this shows the audience that time and money would have been spent on our film, and it would be worth them seeing. We have used the conventional sounds in our product, such as a sound track at the beginning. This gives an inclination as to the type of film it will be. We also included a voice over to help inform the audience a little bit of extra information. This is quite subversive, as not many films have a voice over that are Romantic Comedies, so we decided to include this to add an edge to it, and this would also bring the . We also used a sound track over the top of our opening sequence, as this is conventional, and helps the audience know what kind of genre the film would be.

In our production, we used some special effects like fading. This can either mean a difference in time or a change or location, and this helps the audience keep up with whats happening with the story. These are conventional, and are widely used for these reasons, and is the easiest way to do so. Fading was also used when the names of the actors came up, as this eases it in, and makes it less distracting than if it had used hard cuts to pop up. These were easily done on the edit suite, as we have had practice before hand, with our preliminary task, so are familiar with the basics of the edit suite. We also had to speed up one of the shots panning across school, as we felt the original was too slow, and a waste of time.