Evaluation Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

I created a Facebook account for a 17 year old girl, who attends the BRIT school and is interested in music and urban films. She lives on an estate in London. I believe that she is a representation of our target audience as she is in education at one of the top performing arts schools in the whole of the UK meaning she is ambitious, in addition to her living in an urban are of London, similar to our protagonist. 

She has liked films such as Shank and Anuvahood which are films which share the same genre as our film.

Wider audience for Teen Films

Often, many people who are not teenagers watch teen movies, simply on the basis of their interests. We believe this applies to our film/opening because of our sub genre: urban drama/coming of age. Our USP is the coming of age genre which can appeals to a variety of people, i.e. adults and young people. Similarly, the urban elements appeal to a certain type of young person, i.e. lives in an urban area, listens to grime music etc.

Below are some members of the general public who are part of target audience speaking about why they are attracted to our film opening

Evaluation - Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Our film production company is called 'Lights Out' and our distribution company is called 'Sound Check Films'

We chose these companies because they are both small independent companies, which will not require a large budget to produce our film, we also chose these films because our film is a British Independent film, so our film opening will not require such a large distribution and production company to get our film out there. We looked to imitate a company like 'Revolver' who produced films like 'Ill Manors', 'Anuvahood' and so forth all these films are small independent films, which particularly don't need a large budget to produce.

These companies appeal to the younger audience and this is in correlation with the target audience of our film opening. 

Evaluation Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Representation refers to the construction in any medium (especially the mass media) of aspects of ‘reality’ such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts. Such representations may be in speech or writing as well as still or moving pictures. 

When talking about the characters in our film opening 'On Road' we had to make it appeal to the correct target audience by ensuring the characters acted familiar to the teenagers in today's society. Teenagers in today's society are stereotyped for being on the streets, causing trouble and getting up to no good. We took this into consideration and tried to make our characters to act similar to how teenagers are so they can understand and connect more with the protagonist. Our main characters are portrayed differently:

1. Darnell Williams - Darnell is the main character as the story is told from his point of view. He is a ambitious boy who's chasing his dream and does this even with all the things holding him back. Because he lives on a gritty estate that automatically stereotypes him to one of those gang affiliated boys, also because of this appearance and how he dresses. 

2. Skirmz - Skirmz now is stereotyped because of the way he is dressed and his appearance. He is mainly seen on the estate with give him the look that he is gang affiliated. This is also due to the different sort of acts he gets up to on the estate. 

When looking at whether we represented the characters in a negative or positive way, we had to think about how we wanted the characters to be seen. For example, Skirmz was seen in a negative way because of what he is known for and for his acts in trying to stop Darnell to accomplish his dream. Whereas, Darnell is seen in a positive way, because of his drive for success. 


Stereotyping

Evaluation Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?

We mainly attracted our target audience (16-25yr old londoners/students) by having a protagonist/actor whom they can relate to. In this video he speaks about his fandom, and how much he cares about his fans.

Mise En Scene

 By setting our film opening on an estate in mile end (London), it provides urban scenery which we felt our target audience could relate to. Similarly, the costume, i.e. hoodies, black clothing etc resonate the grime/gritty vibe of the film. 

Actors

The protagonist is a 16 year old male aspiring to be s a rapper; because he is a young boy escaping the troubles of his area to become something big, our target audience can connect to the protagonist and relate to the storyline. Although the protagonist is male, many females can also be attracted to the film opening because it is mainly about getting somewhere and aspiring to become something, and leaving the 'hood'. 

Genre and Storyline

The Genre, 'Coming Of Age', appeals to the audience as it allows the audience follow the journey, many of our target audience think about getting somewhere and not giving up, which is why 'Coming Of Age' is a genre that our target audience can connect with. The storyline attracts the audience because it allows them to go on this journey with the young protagonist who dreams to become something, by escaping the troubles of the road life, troubles of pursuing higher education and even a job, the audience can relate to the troubles of the the protagonist and again go on this journey with him.

Sound/Score

Music used throughout our film is grime/rap which adds to the gritty/'hood' nature of our film. This would appeal to teenagers in particular as rap/grime music is mainly listened to by that demographic. 

Rough Cut Feedback

The rough cut feedback helped us improve our product as we were told that we had too many shots of the protagonist in the studio, making it seem like a music video rather than a film opening. We then decided that using many shots around the estate, weaved in between the studio shots, we would manage to make it look like a film opening because the audience would have already established and connected to the protagonist and can understand what he is going through.

 We changed our film name from 'The Come Up' to 'On Road' because 'On Road' really highlights the stereotypes of young teenagers being on the street due to its colloquial meaning. In our film opening 'On Road' refers to being on the road to success and chasing that dream and never giving up, again a number of teenagers aspire to be somewhere, and the name 'On Road' can appeal to any sort of dream that a teenager wishes to pursue.

Our film opening is also on Vimeo, where it can be viewed by users of vimeo, who tend to be people who fit our target audience, i.e. teenagers/students, aged between 16 and 25. Similarly, the cinema preview, aimed specifically at students, is also a way in which we reached our target audience. What is also noticeable in this screenshot is the production company name which we made in a font which we felt would appeal to our target audience as it looks modern and is compatible with the establishing shot of the estate which it's placed on. 

Evaluation Q6. What you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

In the beginning stages of our film opening project, we were introduced to blogger where we blogged about our progress and anything relevant to our project.

Similarly we used google to carry out research on films during the planning stages of our project.

Prezi was also a useful technology in the early stages of our project, when we had to pitch our idea to the teachers and class. This is when I realised the importance of technologies such as Prezi in the making of such a product as they are the easiest and most effective modern form of communication. 

Sound

We used creative commons and soundcloud to locate appropriate copyright free music; this was interesting as it gave us the opportunity to explore thousands of sounds and music. This not only taught me how to use technologies like this, but also the importance of using copyright free music/sounds for the sake of legality.

Evaluation - Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The wider audience for teen movies in general depends mostly on the genre of the film.

for example: a horror film may appeal to teens, because it stereotypes young teenagers in horror films as being naive and curious, and they are the ones that always end up being the victims, presenting them as vulnerable. Horror films appeal both to the male and female target audience from the ages of 15-18, however we can also argue that horror films are targeted towards those who are older than 18.

A Romantic Film  may appeal to young teenagers mostly females who are aged 15-18 also, this is because it is more sensible to come to a conclusion that females are more seen to be enticed and drawn into the relationship convention and can relate to the story about this journey of love.

A Sports Film  may appeal mostly to the male target audience, however this genre of film appeals to a target audience with a wide age range, so from the ages of 15-25, this is because in sports films it is mainly about never giving up, and being persistent, it can be argued that sports films can also appeal to the female target audience as much as the male target audience.

The Target Audience For Our Film Opening

Evaluation Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?