Evaluation question 6

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

I certainly learnt a lot about the technologies we were using whilst making this opening. I'll admit I've never done much more video editing in the past than using Windows Movie Maker (fun fact: that hasn't been updated since 2012 and you can't actually download it anymore!) and this project took me from never touching proper editing software to feeling very confident with using it. We used iMovie, which whilst certainly not as advanced as other software such as FinalCut, it was enough to do what we wanted. Being the main editor (with help from Courtney) I feel that I really learnt a lot from the software and found that by the end of post-production I was comfortable enough with it that I had started to colour grade shots, equalise audio, and other little things which help to refine the look and feel of our opening.

When we were filming I did not operate the camera much as I was directing, however I do not feel that this negatively impacted my experience overall as I'm an avid photographer (currently doing a GCSE in it alongside my A-levels), and in fact the camera we were using (Nikon D4s), is essentially the bigger, better, and much more expensive version of my current camera (Nikon D3300); and so the use of the two is identical.

I certainly learnt a lot about directing, however, as this is the first time in which I have directed a project. The main thing I took from it was that even if you're not confident yourself, you need to act as if you are and the whole thing goes by much smoother. I also learnt that some of the best ideas come up during filming, and that it's important to get those few extra shots as it could make or break the final product. For tips and advice on directing I turned back to a YouTube channel which I used to watch a lot, DSLRguide, and hearing everything from someone who's doing what I was about to do felt very reassuring.

Evaluation question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

As we had elected to have our soldier characters be stereotypical chavs, we had already addressed our target audience of 15-25 year old males and females. This was useful as it diminished the risk of having to add others which may have made the audience to simply think of them as 'token characters'. This helps our audience's engagements to the characters due to their similar ages, and would help them to relate to them throughout the film.

As an independent company we wanted to show our views on gender equality (something which has become more shown in film, such as in The Hunger Games series (2012-15)) through our film. This improves our engagement with our predominantly younger target audience (of which equality is a rapidly improving and talked about subject) and should aid both public opinion of our film as well as our production company itself.

Due to the inclusion of an opening speech in our film opening, it is clear from the start that our film will have a structure and presents to our audience clearly who they will be following and gives a brief overview of the current situation. The father-like figure of our presenter aids us here as it gives our audience someone to look up to and listen to, whilst also being able to view them as a source of humour.

Due to the military focus of our film we are more likely to attract a predominantly male audience; to counter this we ensured that we had more female characters (with one leading chav squad) to attract more females. This helps to attract a wider audience and thus we would in turn gain more profits from the film. The exclusion of the male gaze theory in our film also reduces the risk of patronising female audiences and making their counterparts in our film feel more genuine and equal to the male characters. Later in the whole film there will also be a significant 'top brass' officer, who could be a male or female; male would be more stereotypical however female would help in attracting a female audience and hopefully improving public opinion of our film.

Evaluation question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our target audience for our film is 15-25 males and females. This is because our film revolves around teenagers within this age group, and so this audience will either be in this age group, or slightly older but still have the associated memories and such fresh in their minds.

As I found in my audience research previously -which was comprised of people almost entirely within this target audience- our target audience is mostly in favour of mockumentaries (although not often able to name many, however it is a relatively rare genre, and so this is not a concern), and many like independent films (more so than I had anticipated actually). This is reassuring as it shows from first-hand data that our target audience likes and is aware of our genre.

With the lower end of our target audience being 15 we were initially concerned about our film being unsuitable for this age range due to the military focus. However, as we developed the storyline and characters we came to the conclusion that this would not be an issue as there is little actual fighting (mostly training, covert ops, or at HQ/barracks) and that any fighting is presented in an extremely lighthearted and humouous way. The fact that our film not taking itself seriously is also useful here as it both contributes to the comedic factor of our film whilst detracting from the potentially negative effects of showing military content to younger people (thanks to this we doubt that the hypodermic needle theory would come into effect).

Evaluation question 3

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

To distribute our film we would use the internet, instead of traditional TV and Cinema. This is because it helps us reach a wider audience (as our film is aimed at a niche audience this is important as it is more important that we reach as many people as possible), is much cheaper than traditional media (as we are only an independent company we need to save money wherever possible and don't have a big budget to spend on a massive distribution company such as Universal, one of the Big 6). We also wouldn't need to have any ties to traditional media sources, and thus being a new small company won't negatively impact us. This method of distribution would also allow us to easily access our target audience -teenagers, as they are the social group known for sitting on the internet all day and so they are the most likely to be the ones to come across our film when we advertise it on social media (our planned method of advertising).

An example of a film which has been heavily distributed is A Field In England (2013), which was made available on various internet-based on-demand video services, such as Amazon video and Netflix.

Our film would be available ideally through as many internet-based on-demand video services available. The most important of these being Netflix and YouTube Movies; Netflix would attract a wider audience who are willing to watch a film however YouTube movies would earn us more money overall (fewer views but much more money per view). These are two of the top internet-based on-demand video services available internationally, and would allow us to reach our target audience.

If we had the funds available we could also create our own website with a built in player, which would allow for our audience to watch the film at the standard price for SD quality, or pay more for a full HD (1080p) video stream, or to download.

Evaluation question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation question 1

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

My own institutional logo for our production company

This is the institutional logo I designed for our production company. I chose to keep it simple; only incorporating the key elements from the name into the visual side of it with a minimalist approach.