Corey Skelton Evaluation

Corey Skelton Evaluation

• 1.
  1.In what waysdoes your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?  
• 2.
  Use I used severalstereotypical features for my documentary at some points even taking direct conventions from my inspirations; mainly Dogtown And The Z-boys. I used these common features in all aspects of the film this includes; •Characters (Skater, friends, manager, fans) •Locations (Skate parks, studios, casual settings) •Clothing (Hawaiian shirts, snapback, glasses) •Interviews (people close to the subject, VOX POP’s of fans) •Found footage (Corey Skating) •Camera angles (hand held, medium shot for the interviews, tracking shots) •Clips and still images overlaid with a voice over
• 3.
  Development I have developedon ideas these documentaries that I have taken for inspiration as they are are centered on real life events and people. Although I use many conventions of these and themes such as skateboarding and celebrities, mine is not based on true events as I had a fictional character in Corey Skelton. The development of these real media conventions was more prominent within my first ancillary task in which I created a film poster. I looked at posters for all my influences and combined aspects of all into mine. This includes the colour, award certifications, logos, the films title, release date and a image relating to the film. This developed conventional forms as I did not just use what one poster had included but rather a mixture of all my inspirations.
• 4.
  Challenge The main wayin which my product challenged typical conventions was through the narrative. Although interviews and found footage are included the main character is not seen live through the whole documentary. The film is based on Corey and tells the story of his life but we do not get to have a direct interview with him due to him being dead. We only see Corey though this found footage. It also broke conventions through the way the ending is revealed within the first five minutes. The documentary starts with telling the audience about his death, the rest of the film would go back to talk about his childhood and explore the suspicious circumstances of his death. This itself challenges conventions of film as although Corey is seen to be perfect and loved by all he also has flaws, in the fact he has a serious alcohol programme.
• 5.
  2.How effective isthe combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
• 6.
  Links Between Documentaryand Newspaper Advert For my first ancillary task I was asked to create a newspaper advert for my documentary, I decided that it would be a full page film poster of the film. Before starting I once again looked at all of my inspirations and their posters (mainly Dogtown and the Z-Boys). From doing this I could see what they typically included and what to use in mine. By looking at these I layered red, yellow and blue over a still image which is used in the documentary, this gave me the main base. From that I added award certifications, release date, production logos and the title. The film poster is linked with the documentary as it directly advertises it with showing when the film is released, using an image direct from the film and with the title big and bold in the centre.
• 7.
  Links Between Documentaryand TV Listings article I had to create a TV Listing magazine article for my second ancillary task. I decided that the article would be a review of my documentary, on the upcoming films page. This is a page that is typical in TV listing magazines, it showcases the films that are to be shown on TV in the upcoming week, with the magazines top choice. For this I included a full written review for the film (including a rating) as the centre of the page with a schedule for the day it is on, on the top right, new to sky box office on the bottom right and other films showing below. They are linked as the review, which is the centre piece of the page is about my documentary and even includes an image at the end.
• 8.
  3.What have youlearned from your audience feedback?
• 9.
  Target Audience There wouldbe a big audience for the film as all fans of extreme sports would be interested for example there are over 18 million people worldwide who own a skateboard, however 85% of these are under the age of 18. Due to these figures my target audience would mainly be towards teenagers of ages between 13 and 18. Gender wise they will be both male and female, both of which for different reasons. The boys would be interested in this film as they would be fans of his stunts and his sporting ability where as the girls would typically be more interested due to his celebrity status. On the psychographic scale my audience would be explorers with the need to discover and learn in this case, about Corey’s life. They would have both personal identity (loosing someone you love/struggling with alcoholism) and personal relationship (identification of companionship) with the film. They would also be from families in the socio-economic group of C1 (lower middle class) or alternatively E as they would be in education. Nonetheless this film may still appeal to a secondary audience outside the key demographic, as it is a documentary and could be informative to people who do not know about Corey Skelton or the extreme sport world.
• 10.
  Feedback I showed afirst cut of the documentary to show to my class, this was helpful as they would all be classed as my target audience. I was able to gain feedback from them, both positive and negative in order for me to see what areas were working and what to improve on. Positive The audience all agreed that the storyline was very clear as they all understood what happened in the piece, they was also fans of the interviews, and the surprise ending with the complimentary music. Negative The comments that would cause me to make adjustments were little technical details such as checking the sound in some areas as for example one shot the audience could not hear the due to the music. They mentioned how more shots should be included in the opening montage as it became boring. As well as changing the ending to make it more clear by adding proper titles and an ‘end of part 1’ slate to let them know that is only the first 5 minutes.
• 11.
  Changes Due ToFeedback After listening to the opinions of my class I decided there were aspects of my documentary that had to be changed or improved on. The first change was to add more clips and images to my opening montage, as many had said this became boring due to the still images being up for too long. I went out for two 3 more days filming enough footage to fill these gaps. During this montage I also changed the music half way through as it became repetitive and uninteresting. I also added production company logos, and a quote in the opening rather than the blackout which before lasted too long at 12 seconds. I fixed the technical issues such as sound volume issues and jump cut issues. Finally I adjusted the very ending with adding the title of the film over a shot of Corey with his head in the clouds, there was also an ‘End of part one’ title to let the audience know that this was only the opening 5 minutes of the documentary.
• 12.
  4.How did youuse media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
• 13.
  Research Before starting myproject I had to decide whether I wanted it to be a documentary or a film trailer as I had the idea of Corey Skelton as a character but wasn’t sure which one to do. I decided on a documentary as I could make it more realistic and have the opening to a piece rather than just clips from throughout the film. I had to research other documentaries that would be in a similar style to mine, this would influence me when creating my own. As my documentary was based on a extreme sport athlete/celebrity, I focused my research on watching films and documentaries that are based on celebrities and extreme sports. I researched all these through the use of the internet and Google. I researched these all on both their Wikipedia and IMDB changes. I watched these on sites such as YouTube, Netflix and on DVD’s. By watching these I had a very focussed idea of what I wanted mine to be like this helped me during all stages; the pre-production, production and post production. The pre- production through my storyline and how to structure it (with found footage and interviews), the production through my camera shots and the relaxed nature (hand held and tracking shots)and the post production through the use of music (modern) and editing techniques (found footage). Documentaries: Dogtown and the Z-Boys Justin Bieber: Never Say Never Senna Feature Films: Lord Of Dog town Rush
• 14.
  Planning After researching similarprojects it was time to start planning my documentary. As I worked in a group on my own I did not need to discuss ideas and share them to the rest of my group, I could just get on with and use my own ideas. I started with creating a power point presentation of my initial ideas this include; would type of production it would be (documentary) my characters (and their roles) as well as locations. I then created a storyboard with drawn diagrams accompanied by a script of all the dialogue that would be used. This was to get a rough idea of what shots I would need to fill out my 5 minutes. I then transformed my shot list storyboard into a 5 minute long animatic which included the music which I had planned on using. Before shooting I further planned by researching outfits and having an idea of what my characters would be wearing. I also went location scouting and found where exactly I would like to shoot. Finally I decided what props I would be using. Through all of this I kept up to date by keeping track of everything by using a production schedule. When doing all of this I used a range of technologies most noticeably PowerPoint and Blogger to plan and keep track of everything. I also used iMovie to piece together my animatic and Excell for my schedule.
• 15.
  Evaluation For the evaluationof my work I chose to use Microsoft power point to create it this was so I could easily change my font colour/sizing as well as it being a lot east for me to insert my images. It was then also easy to put the whole power point onto my Blogger account by using the website slideshare.