For our opening sequence, we used a variety of shot types, video transitions and edits. We did this to entice our audience to continue to watch as constantly in our opening sequence the shots keep on varying and therefore the audience will have the feeling that they are there as they are able to see everything at every angle. As a result we thought that this would be an effective use of the different camera shots. In addition we also used conventions of real media products as we used contrapuntal music, we used this as we thought that this was an effective method to make the audience think about our film and therefore this would be a great method to keep the audience interested and involved in the film.
In the last scene we used low key lighting. We did this so the scene would look darker and therefore this would heighten the tension and indicate that something was about to happen. As a result these techniques made the male protagonist a lot more effective and enticed the audience to continue to watch on. Finally we represented the female protagonist as a flirtatious but yet an emotional character. We did this also by using mise en scene as we made act in a flirty way as if that is naturally the way she acts. Also the woman wore make up and therefore this indicated to the audience that she was very seductive.
The target audience for my media product would most likely be males and females between the ages of 16-24. I think this because it is generally males and females who are interested in watching sport dramas and can relate to sport romance genre. Males are stereotyped as being more athletic of the two genders, so they would be an obvious target audience for the element of sport whilst females could relate emotionally to the element of romance. Also, men stereotypically prefer quick paced films and generally do not enjoy watching slow paced films .As my media product is based around that fact, we want the audience to feel the intensity of the game like the main character and sympathise with the female character, it would be wise to suggest that the audience for my media product would be predominately male and female.
We tried to attract and address our audience to watch the film in a variety of different ways. Firstly we tried to attract our audience by making our opening sequence look exciting and therefore make the audience feel the hype about the opening sequence. In addition we also made our opening sequence quick, for instance we used long shot a lot of the time and when we edited the film we tried to create meaning in the editing, we did this as this makes the audience aware of the location and the skills of the character and as a result this will mean that the audience will feel more intense about the film and therefore they will most probably continue to watch on, which is what we were trying to achieve.
I obtained audience feedback after the completion of the rough cut of my production. Although the rough cut was, as the name suggests, not the completed version of the production, it was a strong representation of the finished product. I believed that the fast pace and CU within the teaser trailer effectively heightened the hype of the teaser trailer, and lead to the unexpected revelation that the one of the male actor in the trailer was dating his friends sister behind his back. However, audiences, although they thought the convention did work, almost unanimously agreed that the increased pace made the production feel much more like a teaser trailer rather than an opening sequence. It really was a rough cut!
During my last and final audience feedback, audiences explained to me aspects of the teaser trailer they enjoyed. Some of the representations viewers received from my teaser trailer included the stereotype of black people being able to play basketball well and the stereotype of black men chasing women. Audiences became involved with the representation – even during the short duration of the teaser trailer. Males especially felt that the main character in my teaser trailer represented basketball players very strongly, and felt that he was a good basketball player. Audiences enjoyed the flashback at the end of the production – this making the teaser trailer more exciting – and explained that this encouraged them to see the film at its release. I included the hermeneutic code at the end of the teaser trailer, described by media theorist Roland Barthes, ensuring the dialogue and narrative is equivocal by not giving audiences the complete answers, thus increasing the tension of the product, and encouraging audiences to see the film at release.
One of the main problems we encountered was the location. On a few occasions, the location (uni sports hall) we set out to use couldn’t be used as it would be breeching their privacy. To fix this problem we had to change the location. However, in the end this did not appear to be a problem as the new location (a basketball court) was not in use and was just perfect. Another problem we encountered was background noise from the wind when filming scenes on the court. However, to fix this problem, we deleted all the audio from the filmed clips and replaced non-diegetic sound over the top, and recorded the audio clip of the characters dialogue separately.
Within the advanced technology at my fingertips, I would not have had success in the creation of my productions; I have relied on technology to research my products, educate myself on programmes, and actually create the products.Therfore technology has been of a great help.
