Year 12 Magazine Industry Revision Session

1) Explain the significance of new technological hardware for the magazine industry in light of the downward trend in audience numbers for traditional print editions.

Now a days the magazine industry must always be aware of the new advances in technology which have become a rival industry. With the huge demand for things such as the internet, many industries have risen to the challenge themselves and have begun to post/publish articles on their own websites, examples can be taken from such things as NME which keep their website regularly updated with new articles and reviews. An industry such as NME are trying to expand on what they already have and want to be seen as more than a 'magazine product', this can be shown from the internet website as stated and they have tried to reinvent themselves by this.

Due to there being new technology becoming available all the time, magazines have taken advantage of the new developments. An example of this would be the Itouch and Iphone, with this comes the opportunity to download applications or 'apps' as called by many and in which many companies have published their own magazines and newspapers into one and have made the availability for people to download their magazine onto their Itouch or Iphone. They can be downloaded at a cheaper price as to what the cost would be at retail.

We are now at a stage where there is such a high popularity for television and it would be rare for a household not to contain one. Television is the main reason for the magazine industry decline. As people watch a lot of T.V, there are so many channels with a different variety that people are able to keep up to date as to what's going on in the world, programmes such as BBC & ITV news are the main contributor which have lead to the decline of people buying newspapers.

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

I have targeted my product for a specific genre and therefore the film would not perhaps appeal to a wide audience as most films do but the film still establishes itself as a media product. In the opening 2 minutes i did not give a huge deal away and attracted the viewers the attentions with what i did produce.

In the opening two minutes i did not give the storyline away, this is what a lot of other films do as well as the storyline builds itself up. I used a number of different titles in the opening clip, i only wanted to include a few important titles as 'A D.C Media Production', 'Starring Danny Craske' and 'Danger Dream', in many films you'll find this is the case, i did not put too many titles into the opening as it may have caused a distraction for the viewer.




In the opening sequence i used a variety of different camera shots, i used close ups, wide shots and mid shots. The close up was used to show emotion of the character, where as the wide shots were used to set the location. In the opening of the film you are able to see several shots which shows the locations which the film is based, in the very first two shots you see the character walking past the Wymondham High School sign followed by the Wymondham Leisure Centre sign, immediately this has set seen as to where the film is based and the viewer is able to know where it is as well.

In the later part of my clip, you see him getting changed into his basketball kit. The props and costume are able to give the viewer an understanding as to what the character is really about. In the opening of the film he's walking around in his school uniform and this makes the audience know that he's a school pupil, at this stage you don't really know much about him as he's seen as the same as everyone else. But then, when he changes into the basketball kit you are able to understand more of what he's about- basketball. The fact that he's changing and shooting alone represents something about his personality, he's important and has his mind focused on the task set infront of him. However this also forshadows later events, the fact that he becomes isolated.

By adding special effects and transitions it can create an effective piece of work. In many media products they use special effects. In my product at the ending when he's shooting i slowed the clip down to make it go in slowmotion, this creates a very effective piece of work. I did this by reducing the speed of that part of the video from 50% to 25%. Editing makes the difference from the product being a good piece of work to a bad piece of work. By cutting the clips to the right length and adding titles in the right places it can make the product flow really well.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In the opening of my film, the character is preparing for a game of basketball, in the opening sequence we see establishing shots of where it's based, the clip shows him walking past the Wymondham High School sign and the Wymondham Leisure Centre sign. The leisure centre is the place where the game's to be played.

I think my film represents a younger audience, mainly teenagers that have an interest in sport. Anyone can watch it but the locations that it's based at and the age of the character's involved mainly appeal to the younger generation.

During the whole clip there are no other characters involved, this gives an indication of his importance to the team and how determined he is himself, he goes through a pre-match ritual before the game, he gets there before everyone else so he can get changed and practise without distractions and keep his mind focused on the task in hand.

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

I think that an American company would distribute my film, companies such as Warner Bros or Paramount Pictures are a global industry and have a huge production. Today major studios and independant production companies compete for screens in theaters, this means that it will be down to cost, something which a lot of the smaller companies may not be able to afford to compete with the bigger companies.

My film is about basketball, something which is very popular in the U.S, if i used a british company to promote my film then it would be alright for promoting my film in Britain but when it comes to trying to promote it overseas in the bigger countries, then it would struggle. By using a big production company in the U.S such as Paramount Pictures, who are also established overseas, they know the right procedures that need to be done to make the film a success.

If you look at other American films which are based on basketball such as 17 Again and Like Mike, they have all done well and these were achieved by the use of good financial backing, they had a good budget in place (17 Again had $20 million) and had good advertisement used before they were released onto the big screen.

When it also comes down to advertising the film before it's released, it all depends on the budget you have available, the bigger the company that you have then you're more likely to have better budget to use.

With media being such a global market there are many different ways that you can promote the film, there's television, radio, magazine, newspapers, internet and social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my media production would be teenagers who are still in education. The locations that are used such as The High School would appeal to them as it's the enviroment that they are in at the moment and they have an understanding of what everything's like. If you look at successful films which are out at the moment such as 17 Again and High School Musical, these are set in very similar places as to where mine are and have a related theme as well - basketball. These films have been a huge hit for the younger generation as it's about characters which are of a similar age to them and it's based around the their every day lives.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Before i did my filming i did some audience research and their feedback was able to help me to produce a good piece of work which included all the things they desired. The four questions that i asked were:
1) What Genre of film do you like and why?
2) What do you like to see in the opening of a film?
3) Are there any openings of a film that you particularly like?
4) Do you like credits at the beginning of a film?

From this i was able to have a good understanding as to what i should incude in the opening of my film. As the feedback which i received said that people don't like to have a lot of credits in the opening, i limited the credits in mine to two or three. Also, the audience whom i asked stated that they don't like to see very much given away in the opening of a film and this is what i did. I didn't give very much away at all, i just established the basic location and the build up to a game which was about to happen.

I was able to attract the audience by keeping them thinking about what was happening and giving away new pieces of information to enable them to build a picture of what the film and main character was really about.

In the beginning, as there was no dialogue the audience had to be able to understand what was happening and where everything was based. I was able to do this in a number of different ways, in my first two shots i showed wide shots of the two locations - Wymondham High School and Wymondham Leisure Centre - and already the audience was able to understand where the clip was being situated.

By him getting changed and putting on his basketball kit they were able to understand that he was preparing himself for a game, which then lead to him doing some shooting practice. With him having a personalised kit it was also able to represent his importance and also the standard of which he's playing at. It just shows that even by not having dialogue a clip can still be as effective and everyone's still aware of what's happening.

I was able to keep the film going at a relatively good pace which kept the audience interested. There were times that the clip became slow but this was only done for effect such as the last shot, in which the clip of him shooting is done in slow motion.

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

Before i began my product, i hadn't used much of the technology before. I had used the camera once for a film trailer that we created as a practice run and when it came to using Imovie i had never used it before and it took quite some understanding to be able to use it properly but i think this gave me the experience and preparation that i needed to be able to complete my final product.

To film i used a tripod, something i've never used before but i found it a very good way to film my shots. If i hadn't of used the tripod then i'd of had to film by hand, something which would've made my product look very average as the shots wouldn't of been held in the same position. During my filming i was able to use a different variety of shots which i had learnt about, this was through my media lessons, my film trailer, preliminary task and research.

During the process of creating my product there were different pieces of technology which i used. I learnt how to use the video cameras a lot more effectively, once i had filmed a clip i would then rewind it to review as to how good a quality the clip was before it came to uploading it, if i thought the clip wasn't good enough then i would reshoot it. It gave me a good insight as to how to use the cameras, i learnt that the position that i put the camera in will make all of the difference as to whether a shot is effective or not.

My favourite shot that i produced is where it's a close up of the character like he's looking in the mirror, just with this shot it tells a lot about what the characters emotions and feeling are and this makes it effective. Another thing that i learnt was about the use of mise en scene and how facial expressions and body language can sum up the true feelings and emotions of a particular character, as before with the mirror shot of the character you are able to understand how he feels and this is done with only one shot alone.

When it came to uploading i used the IMovie software, with IMovie it had a number of different effects which made me able to produce a good piece of work. I was able to trim the clip to the pieces of footage that i wished to use, add titles and transitions and also add video effects. I was also able to speed up or slow down the clip. At the very end of my final product there is a shot where the basketball player shoots in slow motion, i did this by reducing the speed percentage to 25% instead of the usual 50% and i believe that it makes the ending shot look a lot more effective.

When it came to me planning my production, I used my blog to post how my construction was going and the thoughts and ideas which i was thinking of using for my final product. I used the internet to do research on camera shots, which would look effective for the type of film that i was producing and i also looked at images on the internet for seeing how facial expressions can show the feelings of a person. By watching films it gave me an idea of the types of camera shots to use and i used most of them to full effect in my final product.

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

Looking back at the preliminary task i feel it made me learn a lot of things to help me produce my final product. When i did my original preliminary task and reviewed it i realised that it wasn't of a very good standard as the 180 degree rule wasn't used to a good effect and when the characters were speaking to each other, you couldn't see them making eye contact with each other and they were looking in completely different places. With me taking these things into account i was able to produce a much better preliminary task. The new preliminary task had good use of the 180 degree rule and used a number of different shots from it. Also, when the two characters are talking to each other you can clearly see eye contact between the two of them when they're talking to each other and this made the new task a lot more effective.

From past experiences through the use of doing the old preliminary task, in my final product I was able to use a good variety of shots that would look effective. When needed, the body language and eye contact was used to make it a lot more effective, as in the preliminary task. An example of this in my final product would be the shot I used when the player was looking in the mirror, by making eye contact and using a anxious/nervous face it becomes very effective as you're able to know and understand how the character feels and the situation he's in.