1b) Media Language

1b) Audience

In terms of audience it was fundamental in the making of my media text. In order for the product to appeal to the audience the producer must take in to account the age, gender, social status and interests of a target audience and adjust it to make it appealing to them. For my A2 coursework I created a fantasy film called 'Legacy'. Classification of age appropriateness is important in audience identification. Most fantasy films are rated 12a or 15 often because of the action and violence, I chose to rate my film as a 12a as it complies with the conventions of a fantasy film.
The primary target audience is males aged between 12-18 generally of white ethnicity and from a C2 and above households, however as they are so young it is difficult to group them in a traditional social class. I envisage the target audience to be interested in specific competing products in the fantasy genre such as Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and the Harry Potter franchise. Now of the USPs of my film trailer is to challenge the audiences generic expectations, I am interested in attracting a secondary target audience of females of the same demographic primarily through the sex appeal of the star vehicles.

The Uses and Gratification theory suggests that an audience consume particular texts in order to receive something from them. Bulmer and Katz identified course uses and gratifications as diversion (entertainment and escape from reality), surveillance (information), personal identity seeing yourself reflected in the text and learning new values and personal relationships, seeking emotional interaction and substituting media relationships for your own. In my coursework the consumer may gain diversion from my film trailer as the genre fantasy is about escapism from the real world. They would also have the personal relationships with the characters and share an emotion with the character for example in my film trailer when the protagonist is about to fight the villain the audience may feel fear and anxiousness similarly to what the character may be feeling. The audience may also feel the surveillance stage as they could get the message from the film trailer that you should always follow your instincts. However my audience will not feel the the 'personal identity' stage as it is an imaginary world and a fantasy film the audience will be unable to apply themselves the characters situation. 

The institution that I used for my film was Disney, this would automatically appeal to a separate audience in itself because of the Disney iconography. There would immediately be an attraction from audiences who are interested and have been to watch various other Disney productions, the audience that this icon would attract would vary in age as it could possible attract an older audience who have grown up watching Disney films and they would then share their interest in my film with their children or grandchildren the institution I have chosen would appeal to a range of audience members. 

Following the generic narrative conventions of a fantasy film was a necessity to make sure that the audience would be interested in the film and want to go to the cinema and see it, throughout the film trailer the speed increases a long with the volume. Which makes the trailer more action packed and exciting and to provoke emotion on the audience, if the audience feel excitement they will be attracted and if they already have an initial attraction due the fantasy genre it will just give them more reason to go and see the film. A long with the narrative conventions the soundscape and music that is included in the trailer will attract the audience because it is very genre specific and the audience will be attracted by the music and the way that it is applied to the trailer.

The special effects that have been used are proffesional and look very authentic, the special effects are an important part of attracting the audience having good effects will ensure that the audience will believe what is happening on screen, particularly with the older demographic of audience they will notice if the effects do not look realistic. 

Setting-
Costume
Performance-Authentic
HD filmography-crisp,
Excellent special effects-slow motion(framing, camera movement), panning shot, tracking shot, multiple, awe and wonder and fulfil the expectations of a blockbuster disney entertainment (tornado,
Representation- landscape and place, people (characters), disability(Bens face), no women- had a female lead but scenes interrupted and distracted from the attention on the narrative, story good/evil impending conflicts leading to face off an enormous climax, super generic

1b) Representation

1b) Genre

In terms of genre it was essential in both the AS and A2 media coursework and conforming with genre conventions. When creating my music magazine as part of my AS portfolio I found it was simpler to include the conventions of a magazine compared to a film trailer. However in A2 the skills that I had acquired during the AS had grown and I was aware of the research I had to conduct in order to know what the generic conventions were.
In AS I was more concerned with simply following the conventions of the genre and the generic rules. The brief was to create a music magazine, the genre of music that I chose was Indie. The conventions of a music magazine were; a large image, medium close up, use of iconography for image, masthead taking up the top third of the page, main headline in the centre of the page in a larger font than the other text, three to four colours in the colour palette, important text in the left hand side of the page (sweet spot).  I followed these conventions throughout my music magazine front cover to ensure that I conformed with the rules of the genre. In A2 I had developed my skills enough to be able to challenge some of the conventions of the fantasy genre which was the genre I chose for my film trailer.
The genre of my film trailer is fantasy, with a secondary audience of action. The conventions of a fantasy film are; interesting authentic setting, predominantly male lead roles, a love interest, an element of magic, the use of special effects. There is a difference between generic conventions of a genre and the audience expectation. Generic conventions are rules that are set in stone and are something that a film of a fantasy genre would expect however audience expect to see change and films that challenge the conventions (rules) that they are aware of. Steve Neales theory 'Genres are instances of difference and repetition; this is what pleasure for the audience is derived from'. As the audience are interested in the genre itself but like to see differences between different productions from the same genre. My film trailer follows the conventions mostly but I have tried to challenge the genre to interest the audience and so they see that their is something that hasn't been seen before. My film has two male leads which is expected as it is generic convention however I have not included a female love interest as this was my way of challenging the genre. By not including the female love interest the audience would not be expecting that to happen as fantasy story lines predominantly follow a slight love story that is incorporated throughout whereas I chose to not include that and focus on the action side of the genre.  David Buckinghams theory 'Genre is a constant process of negotiation and change' would apply as I have negotiated with the genre conventions and conformed with the majority of the conventions of a fantasy film however I then changed elements to make the film original in terms of genre.

identify generic conventions- Fantasy/action- Audience expectations (genre is a negotiation between producer/audience) RULES and EXPECTATIONS- contextual

1b) Narrative

In our film trailer we included a narrative that would appeal to the target audience and fits in to the fantasy genre. Throughout the film trailer it follows Todorov theory because it is has an equilibrium, disruption and shows aspects of a resolution but does not include the new equilibrium because a film trailer will not want to give away the ending of the film. Our fantasy film trailer setting is in a run down castle in a rural place, this is at the start of our film trailer and demonstrates how this links with the equilibrium of the Todorov theory as it is showing an idyllic scene and the hero sat peacefully on the rock again these scenes are demonstrating an equilibrium in the narrative. The disruption in the film trailer would be when the hero then starts to fight along with the appearance of the villain (the wizard) and how they are edited demonstrates that the two are against each other and therefore a disruption. The hint of resolution in the film trailer is when the hero is walking away through the wilderness; this is hinting that the disruption has been solved in the narrative.Our film trailer also links with Vladimir Propps character theory, the hero in the film trailer is Favian he is seeking the approval of his family members and he is also on the search for the potion that will cure the curse that is going through his village. The villain in the film trailer is the wizard and he is doing all he can to stop the hero from achieving his goal. This would also demonstrate the struggle between the hero and the villain in the narrative. The narrative of our fantasy film trailer will also link with the MacGuffin theory (Alfred Hitchcock 1939) the theory is that the plot is centred around one specific thing or character. In our film trailer the plot is centred around the hero on his quest to save the village from a curse. The narrative that our film trailer follows links with the target audience and we think that they would be very interested in watching the film trailer.

1a) Creativity

1.) How have your creative skills developed over time?

What you did in AS and A2 –FIRST Paragraph

1997 Bentley ‘The creative process is the rearranging of the old to create the new’

In my AS coursework preliminary task I created a college magazine front cover and contents page. The main task was to then create a music magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread. My advanced portfolio consisted of making a fantasy film trailer, film magazine front cover and a film poster. Bentley (1997) said ‘The creative process is the rearranging of the old to create the new’. I did this throughout my coursework as I developed my skills in AS and then demonstrated them in my A2 coursework.

In my AS preliminary task: creating a college magazine front cover and contents page, did not express my creativity. The front cover and contents page were very boring and plain. There was no aspect that was creative in terms of imagery or layout; using Photoshop with little experience was complicated and difficult, this made it difficult to make the image look creative as I had little editing skills. I learnt from this going in to my AS coursework.

In the main task for my AS coursework I developed my creativity and this reflected in my coursework. Creating a music magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread it was important to express more creativity due to the genre of the magazine. I managed to improve my skills from the prelim task particularly in Photoshop; I could now edit the imagery to make it look more creative by adding particular effects. By gaining more confidence from the prelim task I felt I could now be more creative with the layout making it more interesting and appealing to the audience.

I developed my skills from AS and demonstrated them in my A2 coursework.

Moving in to A2 I had to create a film trailer, film magazine front cover and film poster. I chose to make a fantasy film trailer, which required me to be creative with the story line after developing my skills in AS it was a lot easier to put an original edge on to the story so it wasn’t similar to any existing products. With the film magazine front cover I found it a lot easier than I did in AS, as I could now use Photoshop to a good standard and this helped with making the front cover a lot more creative. This applied to the film poster also because it is using the same skills as the film magazine front cover.

1a) Post Production

The post production was essential when creating my texts. In my AS coursework preliminary task I created a college magazine front cover and contents page. The main task was to then create a music magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread. My advanced portfolio consisted of making a fantasy film trailer, film magazine front cover and a film poster.
The editing process in AS was not very complicated but with limited skills, it was challenging. The editing of the images and the creation of the magazine was all done on Photoshop. When in AS I used Photoshop for editing my front cover and to edit the images for the contents page and double page spread. Using Photoshop with little experience was complicated and difficult. The quality of the image could have been improved but again by having little experience with photography I was unsure of the settings and how to change them to make my image quality better. This is something that I could then do when I was editing my film poster and film magazine front cover as I had the skills then to make the image look professional.

I used Final Cut Pro to edit my film trailer; I found this was a very difficult program to use. The settings were all very complicated; this is something that I had to develop as I was editing. Using the skills I obtained from AS with using new programmes I found it was easier to learn and I learnt about it a lot quicker.