This is part of the evaluation (question 1)

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
My media product challenged me and Fabiha a lot due to the lack of equipment, low budget and amount of
time. First of all we did not have enough equipment to film; although we did have a camera and a tripod, which
are the basics of filming, we definetely could have had more and better equipment in order to create a better
final product. We’ve had technical difficulties with the camera because the quality of the video was often low
while moving the camera or while panning. The image would suddenly become blurry and uin the scene. That is
why if we did have a higher budget we could’ve bought the right equipment in order to prevent this from
happening and ruining some of the scenes. Also, we’ve had issues with the tripod because the sticks kept
moving or they were broken, therefore the shot wasn’t straight and the framing would turn out to be slightly
tilted (include a clip of the tilted frame). Again, if we had a higher budget we could’ve have spent money on
new better tripods that did not move around. In addition, we could’ve used more than one camera but it was
not possible due to the limited numbers of camera available in our media department. Every group had one
camera and if we did have more than one it would have been way easier for us to have better scenes in the film
opening due to how we looked at how professsionals film with more thanone camera at a time. The memory
card kept getting in the way of the making of the film opening because it kept saying that the memory was full.
This led to a waste of time because we spent some time deleting many clips off the memory card in order to get
new space to film new ones, whereas during the time we took to delete clips, we could have filmed something
new.

2. The casting option was limited due to the ethnicity and race. We initially researched and wanted a black actor
and white actress but because our area has mostly asian, bengali people, we had no choice but to choose bengali
charcters. Again, if we had higher budget we would have spent money on hiring the actors of the required race
and rather professional ones because they make the film more realistic which is always the aim of any movie.
Everyone in my class had a limited amount of time as this is an AS Media coursework. We all started planning
everything around October till January and had to start filming from January 2015 to late March. We had to be
done with everything by 17th April 2014. Therefore, we only had about 3 to 4 moths to to film eveything and edit
everything, including all the research and planning, with logo and titles. This means that we did not have enough
time to make our final product as perfect as possible because we were running out of time and the fact that I do
3 other A levels took a lot of my time away. It was challenging getting everything done in only 4 months because
the filming process was quite long as we had to go refilm the character’s scenes twice, the actor and actress also
had to make adjustmens to their own timetable in order to be available to act for us. If we did have more time it
would have been better for us because we could have added more to our coursework and get a better grade over
all. Real production companies have months, or years time to make a film. That is why they always have the best
final product possible but since we are only students and this is only a two minute opening, we had less time.
Mise en scene is really important in our film opening because it shows te difference between the two characters
and their class. The girl’s clothing is formal and girly at the same time which show a higher class. On the other
hand the boy’s clothing is gangster like and informal. I think we suceeded in representing class through mise en
scene due to the costumes of the actors and it was quite easy to get the costumes and props. However, because
of our low budget we could only use certain props and costumes. We could not afford new costumes for the
characters therefore we had to ask them to get what they have and work with that.

3. We had to limit ourselves to use certain props that belonged to the characters themselves such as the IPad,
IPhone, bag and heels. If we had more money we could have got more expensive and effective props such as a car
for the girl that would have represented her lifestyle better. Also, the locations could have been way better if we
did have a higher budget and that would have made the mise en scene more realistic and suitable for our plot. For
example, we were forced to choose Stepney and Chadwell Heath due to how we can’t afford to rent a nice house
or mansion in an expensive place like Chelsea. Chelsea would have represented the girl’s lifestyle better as it is
more posh than the actual house location, Chadwell Heath. If it was a real movie the production company would
have spent lot of the money on mise en scene to match the storyline better and make it as realistic as possible.
We always see Hollywood films filming in the most expensive places and also hiring professional makeup artists to
give the characters a make over, pay professional designers to make a specific, required costume and pend a lot of
money on specific props needed to complete the film. We faced some difficulties while filming and editing our film
opening because we are not professional camera men and editors. We are students and w are newly skilled
therefore our camera shots and editing will not be the best. Real films in the film industry are filmed and edited by
professionals which is why they are so expensive. However, we learnt how to edit certain things by looking at real
film openings on YouTube or by asking our teachers. We became better at filming and holding steady shots, learnt
about the different filming rules and camera shots along the way and succeeded at making the final product work
and good enough. We were also able to create a narrative that reflects our chosen genre, romance, really well.
Another skill we learnt is making sound tracks on Logic Pro which might be useful in the future. At first we had no
idea but after getting help from our music teacher and the internet we made a good soundtrack that compliments
our storyline and emphasizes the difference between the characters. We also developed more skills by learning
how to make a production logo on motion.