Evaluation

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

My research helped me in two ways. Firstly, the mockumentaries I researched, Comic Book The Movie and The Rutles. Comic Book The Movie had a very tame opening, nothing too out of the ordinary, but there was most definitely things off. The guests said things that don't fit them, the fact the superhero fights Nazi's, the reboot is as cliche as they come. It's clearly parodying elements associated with the topic, but not all throughout, a level of subtlety. I attempted to put a level of it within my work, but this opening also influenced me to using special guests, showing memorabilia, direct talking to the camera, use of images, etc. The Rutles on the other hand, was more hands on with it's parody elements, considering the entirety of it was satire of the Beatles. The disclaimer, the overly long shot, the narrator talking to the camera while the cameraman is constantly speeding up, where the narrator is also saying things that don't make sense at some points, these are all clearly done with humor in mind. From here, I learnt that parody didn't need to be just done from subject matter, but is also done from the visuals. What I took from this was the disclaimer, and in the cut scenes, the unusual things being said. However, what this meant is that visual jokes were fine, as long as they were parodying cliches seen in other things. The other opening I watched in my own time was The Canadian Conspiracy, which while I didn't write about it, a lot of it was just mocking how theories can go off the wall and while I didn't borrow many ideas from it, what I did borrow was it's disclaimer, which was also mocking. It did influence other concepts, the outlandish ones, but I felt they were too ambitious.

My media product is a Mockumentary, and while some of my research was dedicated to the genre, the second half was dedicated to the mystery genre (the genre I originally had in mind as what I wanted to do) which gave me an idea of what I should avoid doing. In terms of the mystery films I looked at, The Bourne Identity, Se7en and Memento, some very noticeable trends started to form. The Bourne Identity uses suspense to full effect, using a mixture of shot lengths and angles to form a feeling of anticipation in the viewer. To me, this makes me think that while use of different shot lengths is fine, I should try to avoid it forming any sort of narrative structure, anything that challenges the genre. Se7en uses seeming unrelated imagery to hide things to create a confusingly elaborate narrative, so avoiding that shouldn't be too hard, yet hiding things for comedic effect I feel encouraged to do now. The same goes with Memento, where it reverses everything to create an interesting take of an apparently cliche opening, which allows it to disorientate yet put everything in plain sight, which I use, but not for narrative. I guess the point I'm trying to make is narrative, anything that's overarching and a storyline, avoid it at all costs.

Challenging the normal was something I strived to achieve, due to my genre. Any sort of element that poked fun at how other films were made is an example of this, such as the disclaimer at the start being used not for any major warnings, but as an instant joke. This challenges the norm in a way that catches a viewer off guard, switching their expectation with my desired effect through comedy.

I've also used an abundance of clips featured in other media works which, while not a new idea, is used so rarely it does have a certain uniqueness to it. This allows recognizable images to flood a viewers mind, connecting several identities together in a way that allows the relate-ability to come from all over. The referential humor is also attributed to this, as it targets the audiences memories to connect unrelated things together, such as RabbidLuigi, well known for his general neutral stance on most things, to be portrayed as a man who's snobby, cocky, not who he's recognized as. I've challenged already established jokes, links and conventions from other media products, real media, to create new humor, new connections and take it in my own direction.

However, not all I've done is challenge. There's some ideas that I've tried to stick with to create a believable parody, not just pure comedy. To each joke, there needs to be some set-up, a reason for to exist, a message to be followed from. As such, structurally, I kept it very grounds on. First, a message that had warnings, an introduction, a backstory, show the scale it gets to, titles. This structure is very simplistic, and is one of the most conventional opening routes to take as an intro is meant to set up the rest of the film. Having this formula only establishes, never develops, what an opening should do and this is true of many genre's. A mystery may show a murder take place, but you never know why, who, you never get answers. A police drama may inform you about the main character, how he's gotten to his position, but you never see what he does there, only what he has done. A documentary establishes a scenario, something to be explored, a solution aimed to be achieved, but never provide more than the loosest evidence into getting there. As such, details about the main character are all I reveal, and that he isn't the only one. I don't show progression into him proving a point, merely that the evidence lies in the fact multiple people can have answers.

Structure isn't the only thing however, my use of camerawork and mise 'en scene is very standard. Angles don't try and challenge the norm, they conform with it with very simple and basic choices, like most documentaries taking place in such a small location. The movement is also the same, with the biggest movement being with crab shots, and very small moves. There's never anything drastic, and there never should be. Mise 'en Scene is also rather standard. The costumes aren't outlandish, they look casual enough for just anyone to wear. The rooms it take place in all look very plain and ordinary, like the people who're in them. The small details match the characters as well, Drake having lots of games showing his dedication and Sharla having a very simple area representing her casual nature towards the media products.

For mockumentaries, I believe though I have striven and achieved development of some conventions, editing wise in particular. With most documentaries, the editing is simple, consisting of straight cuts, fades, non-diegetic music, voice-over, text announcing who someone is and little else, which all of them, I feature in "Virtual World Problem". However, I also add even more to that, with the use of specific object movement, varied transitions like having objects scroll over a clip to reveal a new one, dissolving, blinds among others, use of multiple layers shrunk to look like one collage, straight up subtitles to show foreign speakers, altering the speed of clips, allowing the clip editing to be partially be influenced by voice-over, and partially by the music, all this and more aren't standard editing choices for documentaries but they could easily be. They're ideas that can easily be brought in to expand on already established choices editors make for the genre.

"How does your media product represent particular social groups?"

The social groups represented in "Virtual World Problems" don't have too many differences, the major connection being that they're all influenced by the media. However, there are clear groups to make mentions of.

Devoted shut-in's like Drake, the main character, who has spent their life around products like this. Someone entirely comfortable with everything media related, because it's something he can actually talk about. If it was something else, he'd probably shy up but he conforms to the stereotype that he can talk out of the public eye, but to a crowd as long as he can't see them. This choice was made in order to have a vaguely relatable and believable character.

DF doesn't have much that can be talked about, but he represents how passionate gamers can get about gaming and victory, a meaningless victory overall.

RabbidLuigi is a representation of the online media creator group of YouTubers. People known for producing content for YouTube as the name suggests, that rely on their fans to support them, to watch their content, in order to make a living, or to get them to the public eye. They're usually grateful for support, someone who's happy because they've made people happy. However, RabbidLuigi in VWP isn't reflective of this, someone who shows clear arrogance, someone who appears to be doing what he does to boost his ego, seeing his fans as little more than a number. This is not only shown through his words, but his physical actions as well. My choice to go against the stereotype was for the sake of humor, but it carries a powerful message when inferred that fame corrupts. It may have humor as it's start, but look into it and there's a twist.

Giovanni I wanted as a representation of just a foreigner influenced by media. As such, he follows the main point of just speaking a different language to everyone else. Apart from that, there isn't much I think he conforms or challenges. He's an accurate representation of the stereotype in the fact he's normal, he just speaks in a different language. This is done for the sake of humor, as was Rabbid, but the message I wanted to show from this I'll bring up later.

Sharla is a character that represents the mainstream crowd, rather than a specific subgroup. The intention with her is to show how media influences an average person, as she's clearly someone who doesn't spend her life around just this. This allows dynamics to come across where she doesn't exactly understand the connotations liking certain works have on fans of a wider variety of media would, fans who either get way too into it, or think that they're amateur works comparatively to what they're fans of. In a sense, she's the closest thing to an "outsider" in this intro. This is also seen in her clothing, where she has casual clothes for going out in, whereas Drake has casual clothes for lounging around in. However, she belongs to an even bigger group that absolutely needs to be talked about, the female consumer. There should be clear differences to characters like the three aforementioned, in terms of how she talks, what she likes, so on, thanks to her gender, but really, there isn't. While there's clear male and female stereotypes, they aren't touched upon in VWP, showing that there isn't a difference in who can media can effect.

Finally, the big area. While none of them talk, the general content creators at the end. This means none of them have any real conventions they can live up to considering that they don't speak, but the way they're represented is through the fact they're all different content creators. You have reviewers, countdown makers, animators, vloggers, musicians, journalists, debaters, film makers, theorists, e-sports participants, and they all share similarities, even with the four people mentioned before hand. This is meant to get that message I talked about with Giovanni, that message being no mater who you are, where you come from, whether you're a boy or girl, whether you grew up to be successful or not, media can and will influence you, given a chance. It will alter your perception of the world, how you embrace it, so on. As many social groups as covered in this opening there are, they aren't all that different. In a sense, it's the way of saying that if we all like one thing, everything is connected through that. Opinions clash, preferences are different but if there's a universal form it revolves around, it's fictional media.

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

A media institution is a company that distributes the product, starting usually with cinema and then selling merchandise. With a mockumentary, it's quite hard to say how you'd want it to be distributed, especially with the fact that as something that concerns games and anime, it's not just something that would appeal to everyone. My thought process led me to a quite unconventional approach, but the one I feel would be most effective. In order to distribute this, I wouldn't ask a major TV network, for the simple fact there's none that specifically target the audience. If VWP became popular down the line, it'd be up for consideration, to approach a network to ask to air this. However, my first goal would be to approach Sony, one of the biggest multinational conglomerate corporations in the world, known for not just focusing in one area, but rather having support for a wide mileage of them like film, games, music, electronics, etc. Film and games are important here, because then they'd be more likely to approve of the content featured in it, games. Of course, before even considering this, you'd need to get the proper permission from all the content creators featured in it to take it widespread, but the first place I'd get it distributed after approaching Sony, is on their very own PlayStation systems, specifically PS3, 4 and Vita and also YouTube. As PlayStations are gaming consoles, they likely have the target audience already owning them. This means distributing the film through the PlayStation Store is going to have it catch the eyes of many people, as PlayStation Store distributes many films, TV shows, anime, other things that will be mentioned in VWP. YouTube on the other hand, leaves it in a more accessible area, where it's free to upload and plenty of people will be able to see it. Naturally as a modern film, the use of their paid services are accessible, where for a viewer to see it, they will need to pay an amount. This sounds incredibly dangerous because too high, and you lose potential viewers, but too low, and people will think it's bad. However, as a product containing pre-existing works, which is protected from copyright law as mentioned before, profit is not something I can achieve through this. Selling it for any amount breaks copyright law, so the distribution will be free. If any sort of success is founded through this, and people clearly want more of it, other streaming services with the target audience attached to them, I'd aim to try and distribute it on these, the Wii U e-shop, Valve's Steam, X-Box Live and Crunchyroll's premium services. Marketing can be done with trailers, twitter posts and promotion on each of the platforms mentioned above.

"Who would be the audience for your media product?"

My audience, while I don't believe I've explicitly stated anything about who they are in the planning, I've always had in mind who my target audience is. My target audience has a 16-35 market niche, and consists of people who share any love for TV, films, anime, gaming, anyone who shares a love for a type of media product. And I don't mean, just loving, I mean devotion. A large portion of their lives dedicated to them. Maybe people who have an occupation around them. Ethnicity doesn't matter, likely middle class, males and females, most likely more to the male spectrum, etc. The idea is people that honestly love media or even people that just want to understand it even better will be interested in this. Films I'd see them watching before are Comic Book The Movie, and adaptation film of another piece of Media, etc.

"How did you attract/address your audience?"

With the audience, when addressing them in the product, they aren't talked down to. Rather, Drake talks to them like they have at least an understanding of the initial idea, and is only expanded upon then. However, this also allows for humor, because changing how the audience is spoken to with Rabbid is quite humorous. They're treated as equals, unless a character just doesn't care about them. This is because an audience to a documentary, regardless of subcategory, they're interested in discovering about whatever the concept is, ironic or not. Nature documentaries have viewers who want to learn about wildlife, school documentaries have viewers who want to learn about education systems and how the students find and benefit from them, even conspiracy mockumentaries have viewers that want to learn about a theory so they can have a laugh about how ridiculous it is. At the core of documentaries, they have the same way of addressing.

The question is, how do you catch your viewers interest? How do you attract them into watching them? That's why the intro is stacked with reference upon reference. From the disclaimer, names get dropped that have some sort of impact in communities of people from the target audience. You hear something you recognize, interest is automatically placed, you hear a familiar jingle, you wanna know the context. As such, this intro has many recognizable keywords, songs and images from gaming, TV, etc, to a niche community, the target audiences. It it was something more general, you learn to expect to hear it in everyday life. Something as unique as "Gatchaman ~ In The Name of Love", is distinctive, and immediately recognizable to fans of it, which draws in audience members who are fans. On the flip side, due to it's uniqueness, the song may draw in people who are curious about what it is. The less recognizable something is that is recognizable by at least one person, the more effective it is. Name dropping like with "Dante from The Devil May Cry series" also has that effect, because it's an in-joke in the community, but as an in-joke, you don't want to be left out of it, so you get curious to find more out.

"What have you learnt about technologies from the processes of constructing this product?"

I've learnt quite a bit about technologies that helped my media product hit the level it's at now. PowerShot SX130 IS is the camera I used in my final piece, but before then, I had used two different cameras. One was in the preliminary task, which I don't have the name of, and the other was a Canon LEGRIA FS37. Concerning the ones used for the main task, the LEGRIA and PowerShot, only the latter was used due to the natural starting zoom of the camera. The LEGRIA starts off more zoomed in then any other camera that I've used, and considering the small room I was in while filming, it was quite awkward trying to film with. Also, anything I did use was not compatible with the editing software I was using, Sony Vegas Pro Platinum 12. On the other hand, the PowerShot had the perfect range, and did effect the lighting slightly, so nothing was overly bright. This made the shots look more natural and didn't have many problems. This also worked in tandem with the Velbon EF-44 tripod, which was useful keeping the shots still and any movement that could be done from a stationary point looked sleek. However, it didn't allow for horizontal or vertical movement, which was problematic, but it was the best I had accessible to me due to the provided equipment from the school being rather lackluster.. The reason I didn't freak out about it however, is with a mockumentary, not having everything look the most professional is fine, because it creates some small comedic effect with how incorrect something may look. For editing, the primary software I used was the aforementioned Sony Vegas Pro Platinum 12, which was the best software for me to use as it allowed me to continue editing wherever and whenever, rather than limiting me to one computer at school. It was also the editing software I was most familiar with, so it didn't have a steep learning curve for me to use like Adobe Premier Pro might have had. Sony Vegas came equipped with tools to pan/crop, cut, keyframe, transition, allow for 40 video tracks at once, anything that would make it look like a normal film, Spending the most time doing editing was what was necessary in order to make it look good, as all your filming and planning means little if the composition is not effective. Along with this, I also used Freemake Video Converter in order to borrow footage from YouTube and Audacity, a sound editing and recording software so I could not only record all the voice-overs, but audio balance them as well.

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

In terms of what I've learnt, I honestly wasn't expecting much. As someone who's felt confident with making a film opening due to doing it last year for GCSE and someone who edits videos regularly as a member of the YouTube channel ChallengersApproaching, along with the channels Drakeante, ThatGuyWithGames343, Dunkle Ben and ChampionGamingHD, I felt I'd already come quite a ways with this type of product, and while I'd learn a bit, it wouldn't be much. I'm embarrassed to admit that I'm quite wrong, I've learnt more than I imagined I would.

With the preliminary task, I had an idea with how to create a sequence, no matter how limited it was. I had an idea of how to make something humorous, but it was clear that I was trying too hard. With the main task, I was able to learn to take a more subtle approach. I planned more out, I cared about how it was constructed more. I used the same editing software, but I pushed my knowledge of it to an extreme. I explored the depths of exactly what the software was able to do, what I had access too and I pushed the software to it's limits. Learning the varieties of transitions, how I could edit footage to alter color and honestly everything else Vegas had, I learnt about in order to see what it could do. I was very safe with how I edited before, not really willing to experiment but with this product, I examined all I could with the software to create a high quality result. This also let me discover my limitations, such as Sony Vegas' 40 video track limit, which was quite unexpected but it let me learn that even the best has it's stopping point and I had to create two project files in order to compensate. I also was able to structurally understand how the product needed to flow, after learning about how documentaries vary in order to other film genres. One of the big things I wasn't expecting to learn about but did was copyright law, as I had to study it to know what my limitations were with the footage I used when making it to abide by it, expanding on my previous knowledge I had from working on YouTube channels. Apart from that, I learnt how to make an entertaining piece of media in a different format to what I had done before. While I didn't learn much just by doing the preliminary, I learnt a lot during the main task.