Eval Q4 Target Audience

Who would be the audience for your media product?

As with most of the Eval, you should be able to utilise material from earlier in your blog for this. There are various posts on this topic (eg your franchise research), and links lists, plus material on the romcom, horror and BritCinema blogs. Here's just a few you could benefit from revisiting: using forums; The Crazies + its marketing strategy; the 80s/retro boom; ElmSt/remakes; treatments; Being Human + using teen characters to appeal to teens; evidencing/assessing aud feedback thru vids; online views of your work; Polldaddy; online slasher sitcom Holliston; slasher franchise task; researching recent horror egs (+ presenting as vid); promo page for cheapo slasher;  casting + creativity; critics v pop culture; posters, DVD sleeve etc; IGS work screened at film fest; BoxOfficeMojo; ... [ALL egs FROM THIS BLOG ONLY; MANY MORE ON DBHORROR + BRITCINEMA BLOGS; UPDATED 8TH APRIL 2012]

SAMPLE PAST STUDENT ANSWERS:

MEGAN: The layout is not great, but what is clear is the amount of research; great variety of sources used to answer this question, and very detailed overall.
CHRIS: In contrast to the generally strong Eval answers he gave, this one is short and lacking real detail, but also highlights the potential to make some major mistakes on audience: as I state in the coursework guide, the lack of non-Caucasian characters does not rule out appeal to a non-Caucasian audience (as this still remains the norm in our unrepresentative cinema). Also, its unlikely you'd target only Yorkshire/'local' folk, BUT you would note the risk non-Southern accents pose to the commercial success.
BECKY: An interesting twist on the basic approach: take a typical 'core' aud member (incl. profile) + a secondary and use these as micro case studies to illustrate your macro points. Uses video of each responding to questions about the film opening, as well as providing visual stimulus material which was used to test aud knowledge.
ROAM: Did something similar to Becky, but much less impact in just typing in one teen's responses, and not including a non-core example to contrast. As with all 3, makes links to existing films - a really important thing to do here - with good detail to justify the choices made. 

The various Media industries depend on accurate assessment of their potential audiences to function and (in most cases) turn a profit. A film will be made with a target audience in mind, and almost always (real experimentation and carefree risk-taking is discouraged by the cost of film production) linked into recent successes. This is why we see so many sequels and clones of hit movies - superhero/comic book adaptations, for example, have been very commonplace over recent years.
The choices made in casting, scripting, locations, editing, music, FX etc will all be influenced by this sense of who the target audience is. Most producers will have a BBFC (or, in the US, MPAA) rating in mind as well which will influence the production.
You have to show here that you developed a clear, sharp sense of your target audience and can back this up as a realistic, suitable choice through some research you have undertaken. In addition to books and web research, videoed vox pops (discussed in an earlier post with egs from IGS blogs) are a useful tool.
I will discuss further means to answer this below, but the best answers will utilise analysis from books.

SOME POINTS TO CONSIDER

1. Set out your target audience, remembering to distinguish core and secondary (see Treatments!)
2. To get into this further, tackle each aspect you've listed - age, gender, sexuality, social class etc
3. Take age: begin with the notional BBFC rating; detail why you'd have this (give egs of recent actual films and their ratings to back this up; quote from BBFC official guidelines); what have you excluded to fit within this?
4. You can discuss the characters, and perhaps any humour used, to back this up. Overlapping with the prev Q, perhaps your representations in general were shaped by this target aud and what you perceived would work best for them?
5. Perhaps you undertook (you still could, for this Q) active aud research? You went out with a camera, a few questions and 1 or more stimulus tools (eg 4 pics on a page: can you name the film; themes on your mobile: can you name...). There are good examples of this in a post on this blog. [Here's an A2 eg] You may even have vox popped some older folk who were unfamiliar with the pics, and who responded negatively to other Qs - helping to reinforce the view that a teen/youth aud is the correct core aud to target.
6. Perhaps you've been reading the weekly analysis of the box office returns on the Film Guardian site, which always features very, very useful pointers on audiences?
7. You've all got some aud feedback which should help show how your text has been tweaked and shaped to fit your target aud
8. Demonstrate that there is an aud for this genre: some relevant egs of box office returns would help here (you do need at least one UK film as well as any US ones from your genre!)
9. A major issue we explore with the exam work on British Cinema is how the biggest UK film producer, Working Title, invariably shapes its films to appeal to a US as well as UK audience ... while an Indie like Warp generally doesn't. Have you included stereotypes of 'The North' or of Yorkshire which would be widely recognised? (I'll assume you haven't included a Hollywood star, as many successful 'British' films do!) You could also consider the national, UK audience: will, for example, a Southern English audience understand the dialogue, or struggle with the accents/dialect? Perhaps your core aud is a regional one? Do accents/representations pose a problem, a limiting factor, in your potential audience? Think about the fate of Mickybo & Me compared to Son of Rambow ... Given that the female leads are cast as Leeds girls, Donkey Punch is an interesting case. Maybe this would be sufficiently low budget (Indie?) production (benefitting from the cost-reducing impact of digitisation...) to enable a gamble on regional accents?
10. As the media mainly stick to certain representations, 'minority' audiences may not have a great deal of choice when it comes to selecting mainstream media texts to consume; don't bluntly assume that as your text does not include a gay couple it has no interest to a homosexual audience. See cwk guide for more pointers on this
11. Consider gender carefully: would you really give up on 50% of a potential aud? Rom-coms are a hybrid for a reason; horror films generally feature a strong female character (as well as passive, objectified female 'eye candy' - the male gaze theory) for a reason. Its not a problem to say your core aud is M or F, but can you identify means by which you've tried to reach out to a secondary aud from the other gender? Note we are often referring to stereotypical values: girls like romance, boys don't; girls cringe at gore, boys relish it. Many slashers include a romantic sub-plot: consider Scream
12. Back to the first point: in what ways have you potentially appealed to an older secondary audience? Intertextuality perhaps?
13. Can you quote from any books/articles about a typical slasher/horror audience? Perhaps you could use a snippet from Blood Money, which you received a few photocopied pages from?!

Eval Q5 Mode of address

Q5: How did you attract/address your audience?

KEY POINTS:

• You could combine this with Q4, and answer both as one.
• The YouTube annotation tool is worth considering for a relatively quick but effectively new video
• The two terms are linked but 'attract' can also signify marketing or production practices which aid distribution while 'address' can signify the more micro-level decisions (dialogue, costume, setting, editing etc)
• Precise semiotic analysis is crucial, so make sure your 'use of examples' is precise and well illustrated 
• There is a lot of relevant theory you can apply - good exam practice! - eg male gaze theory; uses and gratifications (audience); narrative enigma and other narrative theories ... and obviously semiotics, to name a few. You could explore web 2.0 issues/theory too.

The YouTube annotation tool is a convenient way to generate one of your unique Eval videos!

YOUTUBE ANNOTATION TOOL

some examiners may be unfamiliar with this, so make sure you take a screen shot of selecting the annotations (toggling to 'on') to highlight the need to do so!!!

You can find lots of guides on this, though it is fairly intuitive, such as this one:


Here's an example of the tool being used, from Millie's 2013 AS blog - you need to go into settings to switch annotations to ON (default off):

This is nothing more than the final cut with optional annotations added.

Here's an example I produced to provide feedback on a rough cut:


THE TERMS: ATTRACT v ADDRESS
They're not really opposites, but 'attract' has some connotations of marketing/production practices which lead to the prospect of distribution, and address more siginifies the micro elements of media language used to communicate an appropriate reading to your audience: slang, setting, music, framing the protagonist etc. They overlap, but you can think of it like this...

ATTRACTING...
Consider the active steps that might have helped promote and gain publicity for, awareness of, your film.

Attracting an aud doesn't just mean using glamorous actors! How did you publicise, promote your film? Did you engage in viral marketing, releasing entertaining snippets during production? Teaser clips? Preview screenings with a sample target audience (perhaps hoping that they'd generate more publicity through word-of-mouth, as well as providing key feedback on what was/wasn't working for the target aud)? Behind-the-scenes featurettes? Interactive blog features? What social media did you use? Use screenshots from FB (just ensure you protect any personal info!!!), Twitter etc, + from YouTube showing comments/no. of views (you can include my channel too for this).

When thinking about attracting an aud in these terms, you're also talking about how you engaged or interacted with your audience - don't just say 'we did a company blog', detail how you updated it, types of content, and evidence if possible hits on YouTube from this, or responses to a poll (its not too late to use FB to whip up some last-minute poll answers!)

Here's a great example of a post on interacting with the potential audience/getting feedback. Don't be afraid to criticise yourselves for not doing this enough ... OR the social media itself for potentially generating superficial feedback!

ADDRESSING...
There is overlap here with representations; part of the mode of address is who you chose to portray sympathetically (protagonists) and negatively (antagonists). The nitty gritty detail of HOW precisely you did this (ie, specific denotation) is key.

A good starting point, one you will have blogged on from existing films: how you framed (and communicated to the audience) who the central protagonist is - point-of-view shots, central framing, angles...

Here's a few more points you could consider:

Have you used narrative enigma to draw in and 'hook' your audience?

Have you used humour (perhaps a false scare)?

What knowledge would a viewer need to follow your preferred reading?

Have you employed regional accents, dialect? Slang [aka 'teen skatz'; give specific egs!]?

Remember: representations are relevant here - briefly note how your choices here touch on your audience.

Presumably you've provided the audience with a 'priviliged pov' (they can see more than any single character can; s-rev-s is one common eg, but also opening est. shots), but perhaps you've included specific pov shots (or others, eg tracking) to signify the protagonist? Are we encouraged to identify and/or sympathise with one particular character (perhaps they're on screen first/more often; we get their povs?)

Is there any focus on the body? Laura Mulvey, a feminist critic, argued that audiences are typically positioned as male; the camera lingering on a female body positions us as a male, heterosexual viewer.

Have you used specific genres of music?

Have you used sound to lead the audience, but (espec for horror) also as an example of genre signifiers which much of your target audience might enjoy? Which other genre signifiers have you used?

Have you employed gore or (within the limitations of a school production) sexual content to attract an aud (refer back to the male gaze)?

Have you used intertextuality? (references to existing texts, eg posters within a room you've shot in; character names - if you want to explore some theory, this is an example of postmodernism)

You can AND SHOULD add some self-critique: 'here we tried to ... but this wasn't completely successful'

REMEMBER, BE SPECIFIC: FOR THE EXAMPLES YOU PROVIDE, INCLUDE DETAILED DENOTATION; YOU'RE MARKED ON 'ABILITY TO REFER TO CHOICES MADE AND OUTCOMES' + 'ABILITY TO COMMUNICATE'

 
USE MY/YOUR BLOGS...
As with most of the Eval, you should be able to utilise material from earlier in your blog for this. There are various posts on this topic (eg your franchise research), and links lists, plus material on the romcom, horror and BritCinema blogs. Here's just a few you could benefit from revisiting: using forums; The Crazies + its marketing strategy; the 80s/retro boom; ElmSt/remakes; treatments; Being Human + using teen characters to appeal to teens; evidencing/assessing aud feedback thru vids; online views of your work; Polldaddy; online slasher sitcom Holliston; slasher franchise task; researching recent horror egs (+ presenting as vid); promo page for cheapo slasher;  casting + creativity; critics v pop culture; posters, DVD sleeve etc; IGS work screened at film fest; BoxOfficeMojo; ... [ALL egs FROM THIS BLOG ONLY; MANY MORE ON DBHORROR + BRITCINEMA BLOGS; UPDATED 8TH APRIL 2012]

SOME PAST STUDENT ANSWERS:

ROAM: Good detail on engaging with the audience through social media (YouTube, company blog, Facebook etc), and YouTube's annotation tool used to good effect.
CHRIS: A quirky approach: overwriting the existing audio with a music track and editing in titles to make the points (if this idea tempts you you need to be careful you're upload isn't blocked on copyright grounds; if in doubt [search for the track on YouTube see if any uploads are blocked] upload a 2nd copy to Vimeo and embed that). Arguably needs more detail tho.
ROB: You may notice the annotations are on a rough cut, NOT the final cut - you want to avoid this (just have written/typed annotations ready to add to your final cut).
BECKY: Again, YouTube annotation used! I do think its useful to discuss how you attracted an aud using new media (see below) as well, which isn't done in this one or some of the other egs above.

TIP: REMEMBER, YOU CAN THINK OF + REFER TO MULTIPLE AUDIENCES. There's always a secondary audience to consider as well as the main, primary audience.

SOME MEDIA THEORIES YOU CAN APPLY
You could use concepts such as 'mode of address': 'a term used by semioticians which proposes that media texts address its intended audience in a particular way, establishing a relationship between the producer of the text and the media’s audience.' (source) 'as Sonia Livingstone puts it, 'texts attempt to position readers as particular kinds of subjects through particular modes of address' (Livingstone 1994, 249)' (source)

There is also 'interpellation' (Louis Althusser), by which when we get engrossed in a text we begin to take on the values contained within it.

Mulvey's male gaze is mentioned above.

The uses and gratifications theory is extremely useful ... can also be applied to your exam Q on British Cinema, so well worth learning. See this post, and the audience theory links list on that blog, plus this one which applies the theory to magazine ads. This one is on music videos, but should help provide ideas on how to discuss audience.

Narrative enigma and other narrative theories can be usefully applied too

Eval Q6 Learning on Technologies

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

As always, there are many past posts on this blog, Horror, BritCinema etc you could + should revisit to help with this, such as: fan-made Rear Window (Hitchcock) re-edit; Polldaddy; online slasher sitcom Holliston; copyright; using Vimeo if copyright blocked; self-published short film; genre vodcast (+ instructions); researching UK releases/distributors; YouTube annotation tool; using YouTube for quizzes; researching recent horror egs (+ presenting as vid); screenshots; eg of behind-scenes vid; promo page for cheapo slasher; soundtracks; Hurtwood House student egs; other schools' work; being creative with blog vids; IGS work screened at film fest; BoxOfficeMojo; adding audio to your blog; Blogger gadgets; class of 2009 tips; [ALL egs FROM THIS BLOG ONLY; MANY MORE ON DBHORROR + BRITCINEMA BLOGS; UPDATED 8TH APRIL 2012]

SAMPLE PAST STUDENT ANSWERS
EMMA: Emma's A2 Eval is worth looking at for exc. answers; this one is fairly brief with minimal multimedia tho'.
ROB: Good detail in this webcam vid, BUT the absence of any imagery to support what he's saying is particularly glaring for this Q; talking about software without screenshots of it is a little too abstract.
ROAM: Similar to Rob's, but especially worth a look for the good detail on use of the web that he starts with; its easy to overlook or whiz past this point, but research (and the pre-production process generally) is as important as the editing or post-production.
CHRIS: Video with good detail and well supported by on-screen stills/video sequences, plus some additional screenshots below the vid with caption tool used to make the point.
BECKY: Lacks a little detail on some of the software BUT a different approach well worth a look. Uses well-designed embedded Word docs for part of this, including a starting montage page with logos of the key technologies used; then each technology clearly distinguished with an image + different font colour.

I'll outline several ways you can think of approaching this Q below.

Before you can discuss what you've learned, you need to list what you've used, with some examples of how you've used it.

So:

1. Brainstorm technologies used (note the word 'process' in the Q; you should, fairly briefly, address the technologies used in the research and planning, which is part of the construction process). [there is a list below to help you]
2. Begin to jot down examples of how you've used each.
3. You really need to include screenshots (or record the screen while you run through steps taken) to show how you've used the technology. 'Before-and-after' clips are useful here: clip A shows the original footage, clip B the edited version with FX applied, and here's how we did it (jpgs or video of the software screen).
4. You are trying to show off here!!! So, detail on how you improved shots/FX/sequences etc (eg by tweaking FX) is useful.

TIP: It'd be particularly useful to pick out one or more scenes (doesn't matter if only a few secs) and really drill down into how you achieved an initial basic version of this, and how you then improved upon this using more sophisticated tools/technology, taking care to detail this. This helps to get marks for "ability to refer to the choices made and outcomes."

As you run through each, or as an overall conclusion, you should add a summary, addressing some of these:

1. Which tools were particularly useful?
2. Were you surprised by what you could achieve? (If you've used video-editing software previously, discuss this, but just make sure you're clear on what NEW learning has taken place)
3. In general, how did the technology help you to get your creative vision onto the screen? (its useful to think especially about how you were enabled to signify your genre)
4. Do you think it would have made any difference if you'd used analogue technology, like the young chaps in Son of Rambow or your Media forebears a decade or so back?!
5. The means by which you got aud feedback is rather relevant here! (generating rough cuts wasn't always so easy)
6. Did the technology place limitations on what you could achieve? What additional technology might you have liked to use?
7. What do you think could be achieved using similar technology to that you've had access to? (you might refer to films such as Le Donk and Scor-Zay-Zee or Colin here - see BritCinema blog for posts on digital film-making and ultra-low budget film-making)
8. What have you learned?!?! This is the basic question, so, whether for each point or as a closing summary detail/list what you can do now that you couldn't do before starting Media Studies!

Screenshots (using Grab - or Preview if on a newer Mac) are key!.

You'll find yourself referring to a lot of ground covered in your blog; don't simply state 'you can find it there'; provide a clearly set out hyperlink to any relevant posts, with some basic info on what you're pointing to (and could also copy/paste then edit such material, though this might result in an unwieldy post!)

Some technologies used

(Italicize all site/software names): blogger + individual blogs, Facebook, Youtube (and other video-sharing sites), googlebooks, Amazon/Play + other retail sites (with user reviews or 'look inside' feature on Amazon), IMDB, search engines (did you narrow search results by adding words/Boolean terms?), newspaper + mag sites, other blogs, e-zines, fan sites, online Lib catalogue, Scribd, divshare, vimeo, Mac/PC + software, scanner, USB sticks, email, mobile phones, digital audio recorder, still + video cams, iMovie, Photoshop, VLC (for screenshots?), Garageband, LiveType, Final Cut Express 4...
You might include detail on the range of resources you used in your research and how you located these (avoid stating 'they were on a trolley in the classroom'!!!!!!!)


An alternative model follows:

STEPS:

1: Take a sheet of paper for each (DON'T use a computer yet) and brainstorm/list technologies use, leaving a blank line after each for further notes

2: Write in 2+ egs of how you used each technology (you can add more specific details later)

3: Beginning with R+P, start writing/typing up answers to each of the 3 section.

For each section, you could use the following Qs as a framework:

    (i) Start with a list of technologies used for this part of your work

    (ii) Give 2+ brief egs of your use of each (you can provide greater detail in accompanying video/s)

    (iii) Discuss/evaluate your use of each

    (iv) (if appropriate) Discuss how tech'y enabled you to collaborate as a group

    (v) (if appropriate) Discuss how tech'y enabled you to get aud feedback

    (vi) (if appropriate) Discuss how tech'y enabled you to learn about conventions from real media texts

    (vii) (if appropriate) Discuss how tech'y enabled you to identify and access useful 'old media' (film, music video, newspaper, book, mags etc)

    (viii) Discuss what difference it would have made if, like Media students from a decade+ ago, you'd had to rely solely on 'old media'

    (ix) Evaluate (summative comment) how well you've utilised the available resources; could you have made more/better use of any particular technologies? What have you learnt about these techs and their usefulness?

Eval Q7 Learnt since Prelim

Q7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Time to reflect ... and impress!
You're trying to highlight how limited and primitive your prelim is compared to your months-in-the-making film opening!

Make sure you embed the actual prelim!!!

As ever, there are plenty of past posts you could look at to help with this, eg: swede/prelim; treatments; evidencing/assessing aud feedback thru vids; online views of your work; Polldaddy; slasher franchise task; researching recent horror egs (+ presenting as vid); casting + creativity; genre vodcast (+ instructions); good eg of post on sample film opening; openings post style eg1/eg2/eg3/eg4; film opening presentations; slasher franchise task; screenplays + narrative; soundtracks; mise-en-scene task (+ decon); being creative with blog vids; IGS work screened at film fest; BoxOfficeMojo; quoting/referencing sources; [ALL egs FROM THIS BLOG ONLY; MANY MORE ON DBHORROR + BRITCINEMA BLOGS; UPDATED 8TH APRIL 2012]

2014 UPDATE: SIMPLE, FAST FRAMEWORK FOR A VIDEO RESPONSE
Use the guide below, which sets out how you could do this as a single-take (or with very basic, quick editing) video. If its not displaying properly in the browser, you can access it directly from Scribd here.

   Q7 Progression From Prelim Interview Questions

SAMPLE PAST STUDENT ANSWERS

Roam's: good detail ... but v little multimedia/illustration!

Becky's: same points as for Roam's, BUT a nice, quirky touch with the mock newspaper article. Generally you should avoid embedding Word docs except for tables and mocked-up reviews or mag/paper articles like this!

Rob's: done as a simple webcam vid. Good detail, and while the addition of stills or even clips would greatly improve this its important to note that Rob's not working off a full script; he has a list of points to make and isn't stilted in the way he makes them.
Chris': Recorded in F6 with other students pulling faces behind him ... BUT, Chris does edit in video/stills to illustrate many of his points.

Some aspects to consider/compare + contrast; this is neither an exhaustive nor prescriptive list - and you could easily combine several of these in one point/go, so use whatever headings you think best fit:

RESEARCH - how important is this to constructing a genre piece? There was NO research for prelim, but for opening you've looked at many general openings then genre examples, and broken down aspects such as titles, idents, SFX, mise-en-scene, locations, characters and how scenarios (eg sex, violence, false scare) have been handled in existing texts (ie shot types, framing, m-en-s, dialogue, music/sound, shot variation, editing pace, SFX etc)
PLANNING DOCS - s'boards, call sheets, treatment etc. Simple job for prelim: single sheet prepared in a few mins, but longer, bigger task and probably redrafting of these). Call sheets used on opening shoots?
TIME MANAGEMENT - Prelim a brief shoot & quick turnaround. Opening a bigger project needing planning for gathering cast, managing multiple shoots, dealing with weather changes, starting soon enough to enable reshoots...
PITCHING - None for prelim; 1st major step of opening.
CASTING - each other for prelim; wider cast for opening? Casting session? Did you provide cast with script, and/or rehearse before shooting? How complicated was casting; what were you after (gender, age, appearance, acting ability, availability for shooting, accent etc) and how difficult/big a job was it to cast? If you acted in your own opening, compare to experience of 'acting' in prelim.
PROPS, COSTUME, SET-DRESSING + GENERAL MISE-EN-SCENE - List what you added to mise-en-scene for prelim then for opening, presumably a vast difference in length of list! SFX (eg blood) is part of this. Briefly link to research.
LOCATION SCOUTING - Prelim simply school; outline complexity of getting right location/s.
SAMPLE SHOOTS - For prelim it was shoot & edit; for opening there's early test shoots to trial ideas and identify issues before full costume/SFX shoots.
ROUGH CUTS - Some prelims may need re-editing, but these weren't intended as r.cuts for aud feedback (note how many & hyperlink each).
AUDIENCE FEEDBACK + USING NEW/SOCIAL MEDIA TO GET THIS - The only feedback on prelims was whether they were shot & edited correctly or not; feedback for openings was critical, and directed changes including reshoots or even re-thinking of the idea/part of the narrative. Did you actively seek feedback from peers via YouTube, FB etc?
SOUND/EDITING; CREATING ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACKS - iMovie sound files and copyright music used in prelim? Original compositions for opening (Garageband)? Multiple music pieces, more fading up/down sound? Re-recording and over-dubbing any diegetic sound?
COMPANY IDENTS - Major task for opening, not done for prelim.
RANGE OF FX USED - Detail any used for prelim + any for opening (even a simple table will show up the difference), perhaps going into detail on how you also tweaked (and combined multiple?) one or more FX.
RANGE OF SHOTS USED - Consider the shot variation for just 1 scene from opening + compare to prelim: a simple list would suffice (eg MS boy1, MS boy2, CU knife, MCU boy1...)
HOLDING A SHOT STEADY [re-read the assessment criteria for the Production, and try to discuss most of these!] - Prelim was a quick shoot at a time when you were inexperienced with cameras and had to get it done quickly. You know from feedback how important a steady camera is; detail shaky shots you've taken out/reshot after feedback (or simply viewing back yourselves) and how your filming work changed over time in this regard.
INDIVIDUAL ROLES - Prelim was shot with little detailed discussion over who did what; were there clearer, more distinct roles for opening?
WORKING IN A GROUP - Narrative idea was simple for prelim; how much discussion and collaboration was involved in finalising the opening's narrative? Have you taken on tasks you didn't in the prelim group? Is there any aspect involved in the opening production that you haven't done to some extent?

CONCLUSION: Could be a bulleted list of what you've learnt, or a simple video message (still basically a list!) of what you've learned about film production. As this is the last Eval Q you should briefly state what overall lessons you've learned.

Using videos within Evaluation

Each production really must include some videos as part of their Evaluation (otherwise you lose up to 8/20 marks for including only Basic use of ICT (images, hyperlinks, embedded YouTube clips).
As you work through the final stages of editing you have opportunities to create some of these. Remember the 7 Evaluation Qs:

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

• How does your media product represent particular social groups?

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

• Who would be the audience for your media product?

• How did you attract/address your audience?

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

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

There are various examples of videos (and podcasts) you could do for these:

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

• How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Provide footage/stills of your production and of 'real media texts' and discuss the links. Be detailed and specific.

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

Over footage of your idents and existing companies' idents (and maybe footage from relevant films they've distributed) discuss your findings. You could also include shots showing how distribution companies use YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and their own company/individual film websites to market their films

• Who would be the audience for your media product?

• How did you attract/address your audience?

Here's a good example - though the spelling isn't great and some titles aren't on screen quite long enough!
This is a brief Powerpoint from another student on addressing the audience.
This is another example of a student's blog addressing this question
You can read more on audience theory at http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/pph9701.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audience_theory

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

Video yourself editing, talking over what you're doing. Track back through some of the steps you took in Garageband and Livetype. Don't forget your blog, use of the web for research etc - you can video yourself clicking through relevant pages, or take screengrabs and import these into iMovie adding a voiceover.

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

Take shots/scenes from each to show how you've progressed - in your framing/cinematography; mise-en-scene (including costume, make-up, SFX); use of sound; editing. Note the link to your AS exam - your coursework should reflect learning from this, including use of semiotic terms.

Here's an example from a student in Cambridge; she's taken her production and added titles, rather than voiceover, to expand on what she's done and why she selected these shots:

If you were impressed with this, why don't you leave a comment on her YouTube page and tell her so!

DIGITISATION Hitchcock's Rear Window recut

If you're unfamiliar with Rear Window its a classic Hitchcock thriller that uses many horror tropes; you can read of how an enterprising fan scanned all the POV shots from the titular rear window and stitched them all together into this video.

Slasher sitcom Holliston @ FearNet.com

More news which highlights the continuing popularity of the slasher genre - whilst also perhaps reinforcing the perception that young males are the main audience for it (its actually much closer to 50/50 than generally thought, with the final girl archetype and common use of romantic sub-plots helping draw in a sizeable female audience): see http://loudwire.com/oderus-urungus-gwar-dee-snider-fighting-off-cyborgs-tour-more/
Some of the language is a little ... colourful, but it sounds an interesting, highly postmodern venture (its centred on young filmmakers struggling to make a low-budget horror movie, and stars heavy metal icon Dee Snider plus 'Oderus Urungus' of the metal band GWAR [who perform as aliens in full costume]).
The show 'airs' on http://www.fearnet.com/ (which has some deals in place to be included in cable TV packages in some US cities), a useful source itself to see some of the low-budget horror work thats going on, and attracting a paying audience, out there...
If you watch the trailer for Holliston you'll see its a low budget, highly sexist affair, but interesting nonetheless for making the audience the protagonists (postmodern as I said: the Wayne's World of horror).
You can also read more at http://www.horrorsociety.com/2012/01/25/first-promo-poster-for-greens-holliston/
For example, when considering/justifying audience, this article, highlighting that Woman in Black is the highest-grossing UK movie for 20 years (over $100m worldwide), shows the audience is there for UK-based horror!

PollDaddy

Just testing to see how inter-operable Wordpress is, but PollDaddy (which I looked at as part of this) seems a useful site - you can create polls which aren't confined to your blog but which can be pushed on FB etc too
Vote on the one below then have a look at creating your own

March 2012 Top10 update

10 days in and exactly 1,000 views as of now - not bad!
No.1 currently is ... me!
Two Girls Aloud rough cuts in there ... and two Lonely Island edits, seem to be pulling in the fans quite steadily many months on. A 2011 AS prelim (seemingly down to SamB reminiscing on FB with hyperlinks!), the 2010 Britney, and a current AS rough cut (Sam/Dillon's) are also amongst the current Top10; I'll publish the final chart just before we break up for Easter!

IGSMediaStudies channel hits 20,000 views!

The race is on for the March Top Ten (if I ever get all the AS idents in, a new comp of those could be a late contender alongside current leader ... the DB3 lip dub guide!), but in the meantime we passed 20,000 views a few hours ago!

Is your coursework breaking the law?

Read http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/mar/08/sexist-comments-to-become-criminal-offence to see what I'm getting at! (and its not the copyright issue: that you can't include copyright material in your coursework)

Top 10 ... of YOUR vids!

Whilst trying to figure out why the channel page was saying 18,971 views for 3 straight days, I took a look at the analytics (which inform me that its now 19,341 views!); thought you might be interested in the all-time top 10 and current (Feb) top 10. These reflect the role of tags, which I generally take the time to do (and you can edit in even after uploading): without these its unlikely your own uploads will be found. As AS coursework is centred on new films, they're never likely to reach the same audience, though it was interesting to see a swede (the harry potter tag obviously being key) and compilation of idents (maybe through in-school promotion as well as Media students/teachers searching 'company ident'?) well up there.
So, here's the all-time and the Feb 2012 Top 10 IGSMediaStudies hits!
(Will the LipDub vid, silly ident and all, make it into March's top 10? Will Sunburnt in December counter all expectations of metalcore and trump over the girlband giants?! Will an imminent new compilation of AS company idents prove a fresh hit? I'll try to update these next month...)

Remember too, an event to celebrate the achievements of those of you who will have completed your 2-year Media journey has been mooted: its up to yourselves now to think about this, consult with parents and think about suitable venues - which doesn't have to be school.

The Alice Cooper vid's still hanging in there! A new one remains in the pipeline...

Other than class exercises/BritVid, the excellent Joy Division vid remains the all-time coursework champ. Could that face a new challenger?

LipDubs: a DB guide

They're another good example of digitisation as a democratising tool; music vids (which ultimately is what lip dubs are) created by schools, unis etc attracting huge audiences online, without any paid-for advertising campaign.
Here's a guide I've prepared in my limited spare time:

If you've any other good egs of lip dubs, add brief info + a URL as a comment

We'll shortly be getting a steadicam rig for the shooting of this; there's a job there for someone - and these rigs take some practice to get used to, to get the balance set right
If possible, we'll make it available for some final AS coursework filming...

DIGITISATION: self-published short film

Across these blogs I'll keep returning to the concept of digitisation, the ongoing process of change and transformation of our media, a key element of which is the opening up of opportunities for micro-budget media producers to (occasionally!) attract large audiences and even make some money...
We mustn't forget that giant global conglomerates remain utterly dominant, but the possibilities for someone with a digital camera and a Mac are infinitely higher now than 10, 20 years ago. There have always been amateur/debut film-makers somehow bringing together feature films on infinitesimally small budgets, from Wes Craven's Last House on the Left and John Carpenter's Halloween, through Alex Cox's Repo Man (see his superb book X Films: True Confessions of a Radical Filmmaker, there's a copy in Lib/F6), Kevin Smith's Clerks and closer to home the rather more dubious Colin!
Here's an interesting example of a horror buff with her own successful blog, Final Girl, who made a short film ... and monetised it through this blog, charging $5 for a DVD of the 10min short film! The short is a postmodern lesbian vampire skit using knock-off Barbie dolls, reflecting the filmmaker's feminist sensibilities. If you do watch it, remember its NOT a feature film - shorts can be rather quirkier. It is, whatever you make of the film itself (the sound is nicely done and the mise-en-scene well handled given the size of the characters!), a great example of how digitisation has expanded the possibilities for enthusiastic amateur filmmakers and media producers generally to go ahead and create, distribute and exhibit work without having to sign deals with larger media firms.

Taste of Flesh, Taste of Fear - watch more funny videos     

'Final Girl' runs a monthly slasher film club; check it out and if you blog on it she may add a link to your blog on hers!

There is of course another example of a self-publishing filmmaker closer to home, and we will be looking at a trailer for his latest production in Friday's lessons, and with a bit of luck hearing a little from the filmmaker himself on how he went about it, and his plans for this new opus...
We'll also have a look at the film Monsters, a good example of how digitisation has opened up possibilities for filmmakers to produce slick work on very limited money and with a crew barely bigger than a Media coursework group; I have previously blogged on this and various other examples of digitisation, plus analyses, in a wide range of posts you should be looking over whether for AS/A2 exam or AS/A2 coursework (especially Evaluation)...

Futher points on AS blogs

Read the DETAILED post below as well as this...

Some quick points about your blogs at this stage:

• many of you failing to make attractive multimedia a constant feature: long text-based posts need pics, links, embeds...
• start any analysis of a film opening with info (dir, year, budget etc etc) as you've been instructed to!!! and - again as instructed - change font/colour for this initial info, each part of which set out on a new line (see post below with a good eg of these principles applied)
• use semiotic terms
• make it explicit which part/s of an opening MAY influence YOUR work/thinking
• you MUST each provide a summary of what you learnt from the openings YOU looked at (remember: [1] general examples/media language and [2] genre examples/media language [ie conventions]
• as discussed in class today, i'm seeing little detail on or planning for titles
• never post a podcast/vid without some text explaining context/whats in it
• you MUST be gathering up screenshots of films/editing/software as you go, and including these in posts (making use of caption tool for images)
• as my example of a vodcast on layering in music vids (hopefully) showed, vodcasts are simple but are generally very impressive. try to avoid vodcasts with a single shot of talking heads. edit in screenshots. if its aud feedback, try filming feedback in CU or MCU and add in as a shot-in-shot (if you don't know how to in final cut, ask an A2 student or book 5-10mins with John to go through this)
• um...use the coursework guide!!! at this stage you need to ensure your group has divvied up EVERY post task, and all of you have noted in your copy who is doing which post (initial ALL or 1 person beside every post listed in the guide, and check with each other on progress). spend some time checking you've shared everything relevant
• also use my blog with links to all past IGS Media blogs to look for examples of good practice, things or resources you could use too

Tips on getting marks for R+P

Cross-posted from my A2 musividz blog; written for A2 coursework but the assessment criteria are essentially the same for AS Research and Planning, so these same points apply:

I still need those progress checklists back, with dates added where you think each point has been covered.

Looking at several, its clear that there are common issues that may prevent many of you from attaining high-end marks (ie as 'excellent' rather than proficient or even basic in some cases).
Before listing the main points, remember that you should resfresh your memory on the assessment criteria fairly often - I wouldn't expect you to memorise these, but re-read say once a week (Sunday/Monday) to ensure you're keeping these in mind as you work. As you're going through checking your own blog, you can be looking at others (including last years and students elsewhere) + re-reading relevant sections of the coursework guide.
I'll organise points below using the main R+P assessment criteria (abbreviated as on the Progress Checklist front):

SIMPRODS

Most of you have undertaken extensive analysis of egs (some need more for ancillary texts). BUT, need to ensure you distinguish GENERAL and GENRE examples.
No matter how many detailed posts you have on individual egs, I can't give EXC marks on this unless you provide clear, detailed summaries of your findings. For each of the 3 text formats you should be providing two summaries. Do this as a vodcast to help with marks for UseICT/Pres'n (and include a sep discussion on which aspects best fit your aud for TgtAUD).

There are arguably no more important posts in your entire A2.

The knowledge you evidence from this should be reflected in later posts on drafting (changes/new ideas/multiple edits noted in brief posts in which you cite examples you've seen).
If you don't do this, your Eval will either be poor or you'll have to backtrack and fill in these blanks; you'll struggle to ensure your Product marks are high (as you're not working from a secure, evidenced knowledge of the M.Lang of the format/genre), and exam prep for Q1a/1b is also made much harder than it should be.
Again, keep referring to your knowledge of specific examples ('existing texts') as you post on drafts, new ideas etc; this encompasses all aspects of M.Lang (shot selection, lighting, mise-en-scene, framing, editing etc).

TGTAUD

This is a particularly glaring gap in many blogs - I've suggested a links list on your Aud-focussed posts and would reiterate this (such links lists help exam board to easily see evidence of how you deserve high marks...).
You must clearly set out a primary and secondary target audience (generally 12 or 15-24, with younger and older [the existing aud] as secondary). You must keep showing/discussing how your design choices are guided by this TgtAud (including evidencing AudFeedback - see Eval Qs!!!).
Think about the purpose of many of the posts/tasks. For example, the 'cultural footprint'/online profile etc are intended to furnish evidence of appropriate target audiences. If your act appears on a TV show with a youth aud, that helps justify your tgtAud; if they appear on ITVs Loose Women that helps to suggest/evidence a secondary aud of mature women (same principle for magazines).
The point is: MAKE YOUR CONSIDERATION OF tgtaud EXPLICIT AND CLEAR IN A WIDE RANGE OF POSTS (including discussions of conventions). Make sure AudFeedback is suitably evidenced (a links list is again useful).

ORGANISATION

This is not just about gathering people, locations and objects but how you've manipulated/directed these: what have you brought to these raw ingredients?
Have you any filmed evidence of rehearsals/shoots where you provide explicit direction?
Any filmed evidence of director and cinemtaographer communicating to help organise shoot (and perhaps producer too, organising with call sheet)?
How have you evidenced selection + manipulation of mise-en-scene? Consider set dressing and costume/make-up. Have you evidenced how your choices link to existing conventions (if different, you still need to know + show the existing conventions before discussing why you're challenging/developing these)? Have you tested out choices - especially costume/make-up/hair - with a sample target audience, using pics and/or vid to show them alternatives you're considering? We've seen with screenings of rough cuts that clothing can be a really key aspect in reflecting or breaking the verisimilitude of characters and even genres.

DRAFTING

Should be really simple...
Keep publishing evidence of drafting; don't wait for full rough cuts but instead target short sequences (or parts of digipak/ad) and publish before-and-after (where the after can actually be 2 or 3 alternative takes) - again, link in AudFeedback.
Keep 'vanilla', basic edits of sequences, play around with FX/re-sequencing and publish (maybe using shot-in-shot) these as a video; it makes sense to use stills/screenshots to add a brief commentary, make it into a simple vodcast - try to incorporate AudFeedback)
Keep reflecting too on what tools/tricks you're learning from the software (P'shop + FCE, + any others)

TIMEMGMT

It will be difficult to give high marks on this if post ordering is illogical: tweak the publish date of your posts and build a more logical order. For example, don't have a batch of podcasts published on the same day.
Its not just the blog overall; reflect on the timescale and management of the production from initial idea to final cut. Reflect on means critically discuss how it went; what could/should you have done differently.
In my written comments for the exam board I'll often put something such as 'initially poor time management, but this picked up considerable and a good capacity was shown to work under restrictive and demanding deadlines imposed by this slow start'. So, I'm not saying to disguise poor time management, but instead to reflect on this and to highlight more positive periods.
Its worth considering a blog post explicitly on TimeMgmt towards the end of your blogging, as part of a general reflection on and evaluation of your own work.

PRES'N

Hopefully obvious...
Look for small text; courier font; highlight colour (generally not a good idea, it mostly looks awful, but if you insist on using it take care to check its legible on your blog given the background image/colour);


random space between lines; broken links or URLs which aren't made into links - http://en.wikipedia.org/ [try clicking on that! In general, its as well to use words: Wiki on Propp]; videos that have been removed by YouTube; dailymotion vids (blocked not just here but by many schools where examiners will be marking); posts with lots of text but no pics/vids (and use the caption tool where useful for pics); pics or vids that go beyond the blog's main frame and block out the links lists etc on the side frame; check all Word/ppt docs + pdfs are properly embedded.

The small details are important: group pic, embedded mp3 of track, top links list etc
gadgets
Especially important are links lists which make your blog easy to navigate, and also highlight results of research.
Accurate, descriptive post titles, and basic written info on pod/vodcast content within a post also help.

USEICT

All the design features listed in the Progress Checklist P2+P3. Again, those links lists are vital, but there are many gadgets you should utilise, several of which (eg Polls) link nicely to AudFeedback too.
Podcasts + vodcasts are absolutely vital - make sure you highlight these with links lists. That means using these to reflect on drafts + aud feedback (this topic in particular can be covered informally + quirkily), as well as the various topics of location scouting etc.
Have you considered using a Prezi in place of PowerPoints (and even instead of one or two vodcasts)?
Use that top links list to press home the other media tools you've used: Facebook, QR codes, Twitter, company blog etc. A post summarising your use of technology is useful prep for Evaluation + exam, and will help justify high marks if given.



I think thats fairly comprehensive; if you yourselves have any suggestions/further queries, publish a comment and I'll add to this post.

Good eg of post on sample opening

5 current A2 students are looking to create new productions for a resubmission of their AS coursework (an option which is likely to be taken away next year please note!), and this post is a good example of nice detail (including precise info on titles), use of semiotic terms, analysis as well as denotation, and simple multimedia features well used (relevant images including specific screenshots to illustrate specific points, plus a YouTube vid of the opening embedded - links to an IMDB page, wiki, fansite or review could have been added).
NB: diEgetic is misspelt as diAgetic, a common mistake as thats how it sounds

See the post at http://g321richardmclachlan.blogspot.com/2012/02/rm-thing-deconstruction.html

F6 Access During Hols

I'll come in from 10am-3pm Weds + Thurs next week so you can upload/edit work, do general blogging, and get quick feedback (enabling further reshoots as required during the hols).
Progress generally has been much slower than expected, and we need to switch to exam preparation very soon after half-term, so I encourage you all to make good use of this opportunity and move towards completion in this time.
I'll add a further post later today with some revised deadlines, especially as regards Evaluation, which will now follow on from exam-centred lessons (you can apply learning from these to your Evaluation Qs).

IGS LipDub challenge

I've been asked to help plan an IGS LipDub for next month; below is an example that became a huge online hit after TV reports on the BBC One Show + NI news...

The idea is to shoot a one-shot vid where the camera travels round the school, and most of the school appear, lipsynching a line/performing.

Any thoughts on track choice (in this case, longer is better) or anything else would be welcome...

Genre vodcast exercise 25Jan2012

No matter how many openings you've looked at, you should keep refreshing your knowledge and awareness of genre conventions and viewing actual examples of how concepts such as final girl or even violence are actually handled on screen. You also need to be engaging in wider reading, and we will do an exercise on this later.

Today each of you will get a slasher DVD you haven't previously seen, and your challenge is to view the opening 25-30mins (depending on time) and take notes on how this media product uses, develops or challenges the forms and conventions of the slasher genre. As you go you will need to take notes, plus screenshots or screengrabs (stills from the film), taking care to note what each is of; in the second period today you will have an hour, in a pair, to produce a vodcast comparing these two. Details follow...

CREATE BLOG POST

Set out at the top, as follows (you can copy/paste and edit from this post for speed):

TITLE: Slasher X

YEAR: 2012

DIRECTOR: D Burrowes

BUDGET: $4.7m

BOX OFFICE: UK: £0m [no distrib] US $6.7m

DISTRIBUTOR: UK: n/a US: Warner Bros

IMDB RATING: 2.7
READ MORE ON IMDB

Add a poster or other image to right if you can find one.

And now you're ready to begin critical viewing...

REMAINDER OF PERIOD 1: VIEWING + NOTE-TAKING 

You now have the rest of this period to view around the first 25-30 mins.
Take notes as you go on how this film uses, develops or challenges the forms and conventions of the slasher genre, noting aspects such as:
CHARACTER TYPES: final girl/s. qn binary opposition (eg reflects Laurie Strode type; visual appearance of f.gl BUT not virginal; uses s.qn type as f.gl); figures of authority (traditionally hopeless, reflecting teen audience); main characters teen/20s; male killer; Propp's roles
LOCATION: rural or subarban usually; isolated; confined space (characters trapped)
SOUNDTRACK: non-diegetic music - denote what kind, and why/where used; exaggerated diegetic sound at key moments
NARRATIVE: narrative enigma; false scare; killer's motivation/personality disorder; binary oppositions
EDITING: any SFX?; fast pace (older films had slower pace than today's) for youth aud; PoV shots of stalking
REPRESENTATIONS: lack of non-Caucasian characters (or killed off early); lack of disabled characters (or killed off early); sexist gender representations? (arguments on whether this is the case

Distributors + UK releases in 2011

I've posted on this in several past posts plus a links list, but one of the things you need to consider (look at the Evaluation questions) is which company might distribute your work, and you also need to consider/evidence that there is an audience for your idea/production.
So, you need to be looking at actual past releases, their distributor, box office, critical reception, awards, DVD sales etc
There are some things to consider: films with no distributor listed presumably failed to find a distributor willing to risk money financing a marketing campaign ... as most UK film productions do in our Hollywood-dominated market.
Box office flops can be DVD hits - famously The Shawshank Redemption, but also the British eg This is England.
Its worth thinking of a US distributor as well as a (separate) UK distributor.

Use the links list to research this, with such sites as:
Wiki of 2011 films
FilmDetail.com weekly list of UK releases in 2011
FilmDates.co.uk list recent and upcoming releases
Launchingfilms.com weekly release schedule