Continuity Task In Relation To The Evaluation Questions

These are the questions which should be addressed and referred to throughout the process
 of creating our practice and final two minute introduction to a film. Our practice intro has to use the '180 
degree' rule and use professional filming and editing techniques so that the members of our group has 
some experience before creating our final product and the final film has to be from a film of the 'Thriller'
 genre and also has to use the same quality techniques. These editing and filming techniques are graded
 on the mark scheme and can also be looked at while planning and filming, however the listed questions 
below are insightful and analytical which would be good to look at even before are products are created so 
that we can include as many good media techniques first time round and improve theses on our final
 product. For now I will be looking at the questions and talking about how we can use these in our '180
 degree rule' intro.

- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions 

of real media products?

The 180 degree rule product we will be producing should use some typical conventions of pre existing 

openings from television and film as a base and starting point to our piece of work, however should include

 our own styles and twists to make the work fully ours. By this I mean we should use some similar camera

 angles which are pre-existing in the media in similar genre film/television programs as we know these 

angles can be effective in making the audience see an event in a certain way, however we should include

 other creative editing and filming techniques which would benefit our storyline and narrative as other 

techniques could work better than others in portraying our story in the way we want it be. This would then

 challenge other existing opening as ours would be very different and in our own style.

-How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our practice opening includes a family entering a school for parents evening who then walk through the 

school to the teachers room who they then speak too. The family is made up of a mother (played by Megan)

 and teenage daughter (played by Lily). The social groups that will be portrayed in our opening would be a

 mother of a

 middle class background and a child with influences of teenage trends and some stereotypical teenage 

attitudes. We have chosen these social groups due to our introduction being mainly based on our technical 

abilities rather than a combination of technical aspects and storyline. This is because our practice has to 

be including the 180 degree rule and we need to practice getting our filming and editing on point before a 

storyline is introduced. That is why our social groups will be basic and slightly stereotypical, however this

 will not be very noticeable as our product will be focused on technical aspects which will be clearly evident

 when watching.

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

A film or television institution would most likely distribute our work once completed. This would be due to 

it being made for a film introduction so it would be created using specific editing, camera and sound

 techniques most suited to this style of institution. If it was for another institution such as a music 

institution or the internet then other ways of producing it would have been taken, e.g. music- sound

 recorded in a studio and perfected or internet- funky intro to draw in viewers and made personal for

 people to connect with the maker of the video.

- Who would be the audience for your media product?

- How did you attract/address your audience?

The media product we will be producing will be aimed at adults as the content doesn't have conventions of 

many genres. This is because it is being made to show and practise our skills so storyline isn't the main

 concern. It is then aimed at adults as the two minutes we will be making could further progress into a 

reality style program because of it being about normal life or in our case about parents evening which

 happens in normal family life. The audience will be addressed due to the activity happening in the intro 

being relatable and using over the shoulder and close up camera angles to make the footage personal.

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

Due to this piece of work being about are skills with technology there are certain things we have to aim to 

get right to make our '180 degree rule' product successful. There should be a range of well filmed camera

 angles which should be used appropriately throughout the clip and also the 180 degree rule should be 

evident throughout. Aswell as this the editing should be sharp and precise to make the filmed clips flow 

well and make the overall piece look professional. To add to the professional look the camera shouldn't 

shake so that the clips are easy to watch. If these are followed then we will know how to correctly construct

 a media product and we can use our learnt skills in our final piece or learn from mistake we may make in

 this practise.

- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression 

from it to the full product? 

As we are creating our preliminary task now, we hope to learn about the difficulties and easy parts in

 producing a piece of media in a professional way. If there are parts we don't get right first time round,

 we can evaluate what has gone wrong and can learnt from the mistakes so that we do not make them

 again in the final piece to make it as professional looking as possible. We also hope parts obviously go 

correct first time round as we want some reassurance in the production of the final piece that we have

 certain skills and familiarity in which we could use to our advantage.

(Matt Hersey)

Overall, during the production of our preliminary task, our group could highlight what we did well and what we didn't

 as a group. Working together on filming for the first time was tough at first because getting used to working with

 people you wouldn't normally work with was hard however we soon found out that we all had strengths that would

 contribute well to complete this task. Matt showed Lily and I how to use the camera for future tasks, this will benefit

 me in my coursework because I can then attempt to use the camera and get used to how it works. This would broaden 

my skills and help me to progress further in this course. Throughout this task, we have identified as a group what 

camera techniques work well and the ones that we particularly like as this will help us all when starting to film for

 our coursework - we will have a general idea of what looks good and works well to make sure our coursework gets

 maximum marks.