Evaluation
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?
In doing research into alcoholism I found that families struggling with alcoholism within their own homes had certain tendencies. One of which is that ‘When Dad is the alcoholic and the primary breadwinner; the most common effect experienced is a lack of financial stability. The rent may go unpaid; the family may experience periods of hunger, and live in dread of the utility man coming to switch off the electricity or water. Constant financial hiatus becomes common; and families with a resident alcoholic experience intense embarrassment, shame and guilt about their living situation. They may and often do become masters of disguise', downplaying or even outright lying about their home situation’ [1]. My media product represents the families of people struggling with alcohol abuse. This is shown within my media product by the actions of the character with alcoholism. In one scene he grabs his wife very hard and shouts at her, her reaction is subdued and quiet. This reaction shadows the quote above, which uses the downplaying of their home situation in the context of potential physical abuse. I feel that I have tried to represent a group of people that are often overlooked, rather than concentrating on the trials of the father I wished to look at what happens to the families. The product challenges stereotype that the alcoholic is the most important but the reaction of the family is more stereotypical. ‘The statistics for families that experience divorce, domestic violence, foster care, mental illness and even homicide are the highest amongst alcoholic families’[1]. This is a key reason why I chose to represent the non-drinking family members as the more important factor than the alcoholic. I feel that my product accurately represent the families, as I have research personal experience accounts such as ‘When I was a child, I watched my drunk, abusive father push my pregnant mother off a chair while reaching for a box of cereal in the cupboard. Why was she reaching for a box of cereal? So that her family could sit at the dining room table of our mobile home and share dinner with one another. Why did he push her off the chair you ask? Because the man that had spent our only income on booze was not satisfied with having cold cereal for dinner’[2]. This also links to my audience research that showed me I needed to tackle abuse within my film, this personal account shows me I can incorporate abuse and still accurately represent the issue of alcoholism. Another social group represented within my media product is youth; the two boys shown in my piece are represented in a stereotypical way of being happy and carefree, which offers a stark contrast of the actual events as my research showed me how children of alcoholics have huge burdens weighed on them, ‘There is something inherently in children that seems to make them feel responsible for the world and all of it's problems. This is never more true than for the children of addicts’[3]. The way I leave my introduction is without showing the reaction of the two boys; this leaves the audience wondering what effect it has on them, showing the incidental ignorance of the majority of the public and audiences.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Who would be the audience for your media product?
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How did you attract/address your audience?
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
The making of this product has introduced and taught me about new technologies. The use of the camera over time has taught me about different settings such as white balance and zebra, achieving a sense of naturalism in with the cinematography, which is an often used convention of social realism. The white balance that I used made sure that the image I recorded remained as true to the actual colouring of the natural and ‘practically’ existing interior(s) lighting as possible to achieve verisimilitude. I have also learnt how to edit using Avid. I have learnt how to digitise my footage so that I can edit it. The editing has taught me how to splice and then how to cut and refine my product. The cutting technique that I learnt was pivotal in my transitions from scene to scene. The walk through the hall with the father is an exemplary example of the technique of cutting. In addition I have learnt how to add titles to my product. The process has shown me how to create a blog and upload my products onto the blog. The making of the blog was new to me and so I learnt how to add pages to a blog and how to then post content onto it. The uploading images section of the blog making also caused me to learnt the technology of scanning paper copies and then formatting them so that they could be read by visitors to the blog. The whole process has taught me to produce a product and then how to distribute it giving me a greater understanding of Institutions and audience. This is because I have gained an understanding of distribution and how using the Internet and social networking sites shapes and also narrows the audience available. Within my product I encountered a problem where my lighting was too dark and to rectify with I used a colour contrast. Half of my filming was shot without a filter and the other half was shot with a filter on which made the image a lot darker. This caused me to need to use the colour correction tool on the avid. I used this tool by first choosing my reference shot and then my current shot, I used HSL, Hue, Saturation and Luminance, section to change the lighting and the brightness and the curves section to change the colour. In doing this process I managed to colour match the two images, I repeated this for the shot I was unhappy with. I also learnt how to alter my film into black and white using colour correction. To make the change and there use a micro element to convey macro meaning within my product I turned the master saturation down to the lowest negative number possible this in turn lead to the loss of colour that I desired. The process uses a different shot that has the correct lighting for the affected frame and then it is contrasted so that the same lighting is created in both frames even though the action within it may be different. The use of the effect of black and white allowed me to change my products look and therefore alter the conventions and therefore the codes of my product.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back on the preliminary and then on to the full product I can see how the many advances in knowledge and stark differences in projects have enriched my filmmaking acumen and allowed me to make a better final product. The main task is created within the structure of a full three shot narrative; this gave me a firm understanding of structure to effectively make an intro. The preliminary however was just a segment of dialogue, independent of any narrative. Within the preliminary task the direction need was minimal whereas in the main task it was imperative for me to direct by: using the context of the story; giving the actor a back-story; ensuring the characters were understood and therefore providing the actors with the right information to interact as their character profiles suggested. In the preliminary the shots were limited to master, medium and close up shot to make sure that there was enough coverage whereas in the main task I had to combine various technical codes, such as camera, sound, mise-en-scene and editing and ‘encoded’ them in such a way so that macro meaning was created and stimulated the audience to make emotion responses. In the editorial section of the preliminary I was simply inserting the clips on the time line and using basic cuts to assemble the dialogue to showcase the 180 degree rule, whereas in the main task I was editing to create meaning and particular effects such as short takes to create tension and a sense of chaos. The use of title in my main task is a progression from my preliminary with more integration of techniques, such as fade in/fade out title rather than just plain titles. In the preliminary there was only a rudimentary technical and acting rehearsal just before shooting, there was not really any pre-production to speak of whereas in the main task the pre-production consisted of storyboards to present a visualised edit of the film, a schedule to plan the filming process, actor releases and location releases to cover legality and shot lists to ensure that enough shot were taken to create macro meaning. This is a prime example of how the main task is a huge progression from the preliminary. In the main task audience research was conducted to make sure the media created satisfied the audience’s wants and need, the research also gave me an insight into the knowledge of media within certain audiences. The research was pivotal in deciding what the film had to convey and include and what themes and issues needed to be tackled, highlighted, simply shown or applauded. This is in complete contrast to the preliminary as no audience research was included as this task was to show case capability with camera and software not capability of creating and captivating an audience whilst constructing macro meaning.
