Evaluation

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

The title sequence is there to introduce the narrative and characters,set the scene, establish place in time, creative enigmas and to draw the audience in. As it is a children's film it didn't need to be anything to in-depth or confusing but to get the excited about the film to come. Bright girly colours simple backgrounds and curly writing highlight this theme. The sequence shows snippets of the story without giving away too much. Our inspiration, the Catch me if you can animated sequence shows the main character travelling and changing his identity without telling us how he did it or how it finishes.The audience are introduced to Layla, the main character. As she is an animated sequence the viewer doesn't see what Layla's human self looks like or who she really is yet and her character will develop during the film itself.
Children's films are mostly animated, but Layla's star isn't actually animated, it is just the titles which reinforce that this is a children's film and it would catch their attention. The music is also playful and happy to appeal to youngsters.


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

My film has been created for the enjoyment of a young audience. it is there so that Children, in particular girls, can relate to the character of Layla. Layla's bedroom has a purple bed (girly colour)with a teddy and a few other toys beside it like children would. She is also wearing her colourful pajamas. It's not easy to be able to relate yourself to cartoon image, but i think children's imaginations would help with this. I think little girls watching would want to be Layla because she is lucky enough to find a fallen star and to look after it.


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

I originally thought of Dreamworks but then remembered that our film is not animated, it is just the titles. I'd say a company known for creating children's films like Walt Disney Company as it is very popular among children.The Walt Disney Company can help promote the film by selling merchandise in Disney stores to our target audience. Sponsorship deals could be made by McDonalds in their adverts or making a happy meal for kids with Layla's star toys.


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

The film is aimed at middle class young boys and girls aged 4-13rs, but particularly girls, as the main character is a girl and the storyline is much like a fairytale which is more appealing to girls.I think that mums and dad's may also enjoy watching the film with their children. These boys and girls would enjoy watching films like Polar express or Enchanted. i see it as the type of film their parents would take them to at the weekend. They would like to watch the Disney channel, cartoon network, and read storybooks at night. They would be interested in spiritual/ magical themes.


5.How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my audience by having the protagonist the same age and gender as our target audience. Once again, the pastel colours attract the eye and the playful music track will ease the audience into the film. By using an title sequence at the beginning will help catch the attention of the children and to give them an insight as to what the film will be about. Seeing animation will remind them of the shows they watch on television or any other Disney or Dreamworks films they have seen.


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

i have learnt that you must never let a computer know your in a hurry...
Making an animation meant spending most of our time on the macs and computers. i am familiar with using i-movie and have used it for previous media and film work and i feel comfortable using it for this task. Even so, i still have learnt to apply new effects for our pictures we added on there. Sometimes the images we added we too slow or fast so we could change the speed if we needed. As there were a lot of pictures that we needed on there the memory was gradually dropping and at one point shut of the program.This is when we remembered to save a mot more after changes made and to empty our trash to give more memory space.

Photoshop was the software i used the most during the process. I enjoy using Photoshop at home, in art class and for media tasks. It was long laborious task having to save each picture one by one which would only appear for a split second, but it was easier as we got used to it. I found it as best to create a background and to create any other object on a separate layer so i could move them individually without affecting anything else. When making the opening scene i filmed at night to keep the star theme. However when putting the footage next to our animation it was bad quality and not clear. Which is when we learnt to film in day light and shoot Layla waking up in the morning.

I've found using the blog a pleasant experience and would say appeals to almost everyone my age. Whenever i have an idea or problem i can document it. It is simple to use and allows you to customise your own blog to make it more personal. It also allows me to upload pictures and videos which help me as well as show others what i have done.


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

It seems such a long time ago since we started to look at samples of opening sequences, and making the continuity sequence. I have learnt to experiment a lot more on programs to see what works and whats does. I have practiced making short animation sequences at home, but never one that has taken this amount of time and work . It has shown me how just one second contributes greatly to the film.It was a challenge, and the group new from the start, but we wanted to try something different. Looking at other students work you can see how different they all are and all work as title sequences.

There were times when i became fed up doing the task as it is frustrating spending hours in front of a computer which won't upload your work, but now i feel happy that we went through it to get our finished product. I know that when working with close friends that you know they will work hard and do what we need to do to get things done.I have also learnt to give myself more time because i always find the last week very busy and rushed. I didn't manage to put the finished title seqeunce onto the blog, which i felt disappointed about. Hopefully i can add it on when i go back to school. Overall I'm happy with the finished product and i would like to use animation in a future task.