Evaluation

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



My media product follows many of the main conventions of the period drama genre. I attempted to keep the pace of the editing rather slow, as is typical in all of the period dramas which I studied. I also chose to try and make my production appear close and intimate with panning shots over items important to the main character, which I was inspired to implement after watching the long panning shot across the young girls bedroom at the begining of the period drama Atonement.

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

I believe that the kind of institution that would distribute my media production could potentially be nearly every film institution since many do distribute period films of any age or subgenre. however with regard to the subgenre of my production being romance I would suggest a distribution company that is well known for releasing period drama's and has banked a reputation on this. I believe that an institution may be interested in distributing my product as period dramas are a niche market and that not that many are currently in production.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Having followed most of the typical conventions of this genre I believe that the audience for my production would be people who are over the age of 40, predominantly women since my production like many other period dramas carries a romance subgenre.

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

From creating this production I believe that I have come to use imovie more effectively than I previously could, since before I had only used it a handful of times. however now I understand considerably more about it and its many features and utilities. Also I believe that I have come to understand the functions and features of an apple mac in more detail as before I barely used one continuously.

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

From looking back at our preliminary task I would have to say that I have discovered several interesting camera angles which I can use to my advantage. Also I have learnt to use the camera more efficiently as at the begining of the project I was unsure of many of the cameras features and often took a long time to set up and use the camera.

Changes made whilst filming

During the course of my filming I found myself deciding to change certain aspects of my production. One of my first changes was to use a gramophone as a prop in the first few shots as I was lucky enough to acquire one shortly after I'd begun filming. One of the larger changes I made was to alter effectively most of the narrative by adding in a prop card reading "in loving memory" which altered the tone considerably since instead of walking out on her lover the main character was now getting over his death and going out to face the world. I also decided to reflect this decision by changing the title of my film to "In Loving Memory". In hindsight one thing I have realised is that the music I had chosen originally no longer matches the tone of the film.
Finally one other thing which I had to change when filming was the layout of the room I had chosen since originally I had wanted to place the desk the main character sits at against a wall on the opposite side of the room however from this position the radiator against the adjoining wall would have been clearly visable in nearly every shot. Which I felt would have detracted from the period feel of the room in the final piece.

Shooting Schedule

When creating my shooting schedule I had make sure that I picked days for filming when both me and my actor were free. Especially as both of us have outside commitments such as work and driving lessons.

I also had to be cautious of when I would be able to use the room I had planned for my filming so not to inconvenience any members of my family.

In the end I decided to film all the scenes with my actor over a 2 day period which means that I can leave the contents of the room set up over this amount of time. On the other days I intend to film the other remaining shots and finally to film my title sequence and the institutional shot.

Animated storyboard