2. How Does Your Media Product Represent Social Groups

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

What is an institution?

An institution, in this context, is the large company that gives financial aid to the smaller company willing to make the film. An example of this would be Universal Studios.

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

I think that a specific media institution that would be interested in distributing our film could be Film4. Film4 is an institution that distributes films for smaller film companies who may have film ideas that are conventional than other films, like our film idea. Films they have produced included ‘Twelve Years a Slave’ and ‘The Double’. ‘Twelve Years a Slave’ was an awarding winning film that is widely known. However, it is not similar to our film idea; ‘The Double’ is more similar to our film idea, making Film4 an ideal institution. As well as Film4 being involved in the distribution and funding of our film, the BFI (British Film Institute) would also be a good institute to produce our film. They have worked on many films with Film4 and ‘The Double’ was one of them.

‘The Double’ didn’t get much money at the box office, as it was a relatively low budget film.  On the opening weekend, the film collected $14,646 on the 9^th of May 2013. The total gross of the film was $200,268. Films like ‘Twelve Years a Slave’ can reach a total gross of approximately $56 million. The budgets for these films are often larger than budgets for films like ‘The Double’.

These two institutions work on films that are not as well known as films produced by companies like Universal and Warner Brothers. This is because the films they produce films for specific audiences. By using information from the YouGov Profiler, people who enjoy the films that these institutions produce often work in the media industry themselves and are within the ages for our target audience. The audiences of the films from the institutes often do things that aren’t mainstream; they like to think of new ways of doing things and look for alternative music and movies which is similar to the interests of our target audience.

4.Who would be the audience for your media product and How did you attract/address your audience?

This Prezi presentation includes the questions:
-Who would be the audience for your media product?
- How did you attract/address your audience?

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

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

Representation

Representation is the way something is shown and suggests that the subject has already been presented in a way. In media, this could be a news story that has been recalled on news channels or stereotypes being exaggerated by films and television programmes.

There are different ways subjects can be represented is through different social elements such as audience positioning, interactions between other social groups and cultural ideology.

Audience positioning refers to where an audience is geographically. For example, a person in the east of the world may interpret a film differently to some one in the west of the world. This would be because people living in different places and country are more likely to live differently to each other. Therefore there views on certain situations and stereotypes may vary.

Interactions with other groups’ links to this as it refer to how some people view different groups in society. For example, if there is a news report about a war in an eastern country, people living in that country may see the event as a fight for freedom but people living in the west might see it as a terrorist attack. Depending on whom you are and what you believe, a representation may seem different to you than to someone totally different to you.

Culture could also affect how someone sees a representation. For example, if there was a film about liberal women, a feminist may enjoy the film more than someone who believes in the stereotypical roles a woman. People with different religions and traditions will also affect how a representation is seen.


In our film

In our film there will be two main characters that will be presented; this will be the protagonist and the villain. As our film is about a doppelganger, the two characters will be similar physically in order to represent the doppelganger but the character’s personalities will be recognisably different.

The protagonist will be represented as a very professional person by the way he dresses and act. We have made him to have OCD which represents him as being a person who pays attention to detail; this could either help or hinder him in the story. His costume is business wear which represents him as having a good job and professional manner.
The villain will be very different to this. The villain will be portrayed to be a more chaotic type of character. His actions will be more chaotic and unorganised than the protagonists and his costume will mirror this. He will have psychotic behaviour which commonly represents a villain in horror films. His costume will be dark and torn which also connotes villains.

Coursework evaluation

Research and Planning - 12

Research and planning is complete, and some elements are proficient. The research into similar products is proficient, if a little basic at times. Ashley struggles with writing, but has shown an understanding of the task. The research into potential target audiences is basic, and although he does think about some demographics approaches, it is a little basic. The organisation of actors, locations etc. is proficient, and at times excellent. The storyboard, shot lists etc are detailed. There is a proficient level of care and presentation. 

Main Task – 48

There is evidence of excellence in some areas, and clearly evidence of proficiency in all others. The material is appropriate for the task and target audience. It has a clear narrative, driven by the voice over, and the editing is excellent with many examples of jump cutting, continuity cutting, match on action etc. These both ensure the meaning is apparent to the audience. There is a controlled use of the camera, with a good variety of shots and framing. The tension is built through the sound and voice-over, and the diegetic/non-diegetic sound has been cleverly applied. The vignette is a little heavy handed at times, and although there is a cliff-hanger at the end it is a little too quick to be very effective. Overall though this is a very good attempt, with many excellent qualities.