Poor Little Daniel Evaluation

By Jakob Margetts

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our media product is a film which illustrates Daniels desire to achieve his aim of playing in the NBA. Even in the first shot you are able to identify what Daniels dream is and that is to play in the NBA. You can identify this because during the scene he tells another character to shut up, Im gonna be in the NBA one day. I believe this challenges social stereotypes of teenage black kids because a stereotype commonly and wrongly associated with male black teenager is that they are criminals and lazy. The way in which our film challenges this is that we have created a black teenager who doesnt fit into this stereotype because he shows determination to achieve his dream and this is not a common characteristic placed on black teenagers in film.

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

In the next set of scenes we further challenge the stereotype of black teenagers being lazy or as criminals. The next scenes are different shots using a variety of camera angles to create a montage sequence of Daniel practising in the gym alone. The significance of this is that it challenges the main stereotype of black teenagers because it continually shows the determination of Daniel. This is a counter-type. Later, you see him practising against someone and this shows confidence which is sometimes not shown in young adults in film.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
We have used the common stereotype of a black person playing basketball and the reason for this is that a very common belief, particularly in America, is that when black kids grow up they generally go to jail. We have challenged that by using a stereotypical black person, playing basketball and doing what he loves so that he is able to succeed and does not follow that common stereotype of black teenagers which is normally used in film and in reality.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The film is based around a young, black teenager trying to make it to the NBA. This therefore means we are making a representation of black teenagers. I feel as if we have represented black teenagers well because we have shown them in a good light unlike other films which would have you believe they are all gangsters and criminals. We have not tried to make the audience believe Daniel is a model student because if we made him out to be an over achieving student then the way he goes through adversity to reach his goal would not have the same effect on the viewer. We want the viewer to feel happy that Daniel has achieved his goal and make them think during the film that it may not happen creating a desire for the audience to watch on.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We have been able to make the audience believe that he is not a model student by the way he dresses. In the detention he is wearing a body warmer. This is obviously not school uniform and this represents that he is not a model student. Also he is in a detention further representing he is not a model student. However, when it cuts to the basketball scene you see that he is very professional and focused on the court and you can tell this by the clothes he wears and the way he practises. This represents that when he is playing basketball he is determined to improve and the significance of this is that the audience want him too improve.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I believe that many major media institutions would distribute and sell our film. The reason why I believe this is because we were able to find out what an audience wanted to see in a film due to our survey analysis, we then constructed the planning of the film around the ideal film that the audience would like to see. The consequence of this is that it will make our film very popular. The film has the idea of a person fighting through adversity (Daniel) and this seemed to be very popular with the audience we surveyed. Also we looked at other things we identified the audience would like to include in a film such as it being filmed in a Hollywood manner and to also include music to create a scene.

How did you attract/address your audience?

We believe that this film will attract audiences because some people will be able to relate to the film because everyone has dreams and people will enjoy watching the film because they will be pleased to see Daniel reach his goal of playing in the NBA. Also this is also a sports film. The reason why this will attract an audience is because there are not many successful sports films, particularly basketball. An audience will therefore want to see it because they have never experienced anything like it before. Another way we have attracted an audience is by using a sport that is not very popular in the UK. The reason for this is that it creates a mystic about the film because the public may not know too much about Basketball and they may be interested in finding out about the game and what it takes to succeed in it.

Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
There are many things that I have learnt from the preliminary task. The first thing that I learnt is how to use Final Cut Express to create, edit and manoeuvre selected scenes. This was vital to the success of the main film because if I did not know how to use this software then I would not have been able to edit the film to the way that we want the audience to see the film. I learnt how to cut selected scenes so that they would fit together and make sense. I also learnt how to alter the speed of a scene which was crucial for the main films success because we wanted a fast paced title sequence and sometimes it was necessary to speed things up. And finally I learnt how to manipulate thee sounds in the film. This helped us to change the sound levels to create and atmosphere in the film and also to fade new pieces of music into the film to create a specific effect.

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

The second thing I learnt from the preliminary task was about the length of shot. I learnt that you need to keep the camera filming for a couple more seconds after the scene ends otherwise when it comes to editing it can be difficult to create a fluid motion throughout the film. When editing the preliminary task I found that I had not filmed for a long enough time and therefore when It came to editing I could not fit some of the film together without any jumps inbetween scenes. This consequently taught me to film for a few seconds after in the main film so this would not happen again.

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

The third and final main thing I learnt from the preliminary task was the lighting issues that can occur when working outside. We found that due to the weather and the change in light it can be difficult to film outside or even inside f close to the window because the change in light can make the scenes look amateurish etc. This lead us to change the original idea of filming outside to filming inside where we could then control the elements and the lighting in the specific scenes.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt many things about the types of technologies that can be used to help successfully make a good media film. I learnt how to use Live Type which is a program where you can make animated titles that can be seen in the film. This helped us to create the titles in our film. Another piece of technology we used was the use of cameras. Having never used a camera before I found it astonishing the difference in the types of cameras and how they can effect a film. We used very good cameras and the effect that this has is that we can get a very good picture for the film and this consequentially leads to a good film. Also I learnt that the quality of a film is very reliant on the technology that is used because the better the technology then this means that you can make the film better by editing and adding certain effects that benefit the film. Finally I learnt about the effect background music can have on a film. Before this project I did not realise the major role music played in film, however, now that I have created a title sequence myself I found that music was just as important as the right camera shots in a film because the right type of music can effect the speed and atmosphere that is created when you watch the film.