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Question 7 by Kelli: Looking back at you preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression of it to the full product?

Looking at the preliminary task as well as our final film opening you can see a remarkable improvement in many areas. As the preliminary was a continuity edit the focus was almost completely on technical ability, comparing it to our film opening you can see the improvements in things such as the lighting and the selection of camera shots. The editing is also significantly improved and so has the continuity, it appears more precise and more like a professional product than the preliminary task. This is also partly due to the genre we chose, as a mockumentary limits you to the range of shots and editing you are able to do. Another thing I felt we learn to do better was to follow the conventions of our chosen genre as well as creating a tangible schedule as we were able to stick much more closely to our original plan, and had to veer off very little. 

Question 6 by Kelli: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? on Prezi

Question 5 by Kelli: How did you attract/address your audience?

It's George Middleston's reaction to Constance - as you can see above - that communicates to the audience that their own reaction to Constance is perfectly normal and she is in fact overly energetic. He takes the position of an observing character that can be used to show the audience that this is not bad acting but that you are meant to see her as an extremely eccentric character. 

Question 4 by Kelli: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Question 3 by Kelli: What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?

What kind of media institution might distribute you media product and why? on Prezi

Question 2 by Kelli: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

 

We used largely stereotypical characters in our film opening as this is a technique often used in mockumentaries to add to the comedy of it. As our film involved a lot of performance art students we wanted to use the stereotypical egotistic and energetic characteristics that you would find in the tv show Glee. The character of Rachel Berry in this show often talks about her "incredible talent" obviously boasting and acting superior to others, this is the kind of character we wanted to reflect in our film, something I feel we achieved quite well.

The mockumentary film Drop Dead Gorgeous did something similar, as it's about a beauty contest they used the shallow, self-centred stereotypes for their characters. Using these stereotypes is essential to a mockumentary film of this style as irony and sarcasm are often aspects of the comedy used it will always be used in the type of person the main character is.

Question 1 by Kelli: In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Throughout our film opening we chose to use and develop the conventions of mockumentaries rather than challenge them. The conventions of a mockumentary often define whether it is in fact a mockumentary rather than just another comedy and so challenging these conventions would prove to be difficult. 

Titles

 

With our titles we chose to use a fairly basic font as is traditionally used, this is because technical and aesthetic aspects are not largely focussed on in the mockumentary genre as it is meant to appear to be a documentary. 

'Talent' clips

We began our opening with clips of talents in a talent show, giving a brief glimpse of what the film would entail as is often done in mockumentaries. The bottom screenshot is from the film Drop Dead Gorgeous which opens with a show of the pageant that takes place throughout the film, this is something we used in our own film opening to both start to introduce the idea of the film to an audience as well as for the comedy of it. 

Interview clips

One of the most common conventions of a mockumentary is that of the interview style clips, something that we used on several occasions to communicate the storyline to the audience. 

Comedy clips

Comedy is an essential part of the mockumentary genre, it's used in a subtle way so that whilst the comedy is still there it would still be believable as a documentary as well. For example in Drop Dead Gorgeous, the main characters is practicing her talent but the situation she is in at the time (putting make-up in a body at the morgue) turns this into a comedic scene. We however chose to do something much simpler to create the comedy, which was to have our main character dance badly as she tries to compete with her rival.