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

People’s diseases aren’t very spoken of in films, but the few that have, did very well in the film industry. One of these films was Forest Gump; which would be similar to the kind of film I am aiming to represent in my film opening, using images of the character’s childhood until his adulthood and his major turn over in his life. This is one of a few films that actually have become very famous around the world, apart from for example the Note Book, which described by one of the people I surveyed, is very similar to Tangled Strings.


And less relevant, in the opening sequence of Harry Potter and The half Blood Prince, in which there’s a shot in which Harry has pictures taken of him, set in the last film (Harry Potter and The Gobblin of Fire), so the viewer can recap from the last film as if it was a continuation – which would link in to my film opening being a back-story to the rest of the film, sort of “setting the scene”.

I put my film under Drama as a genre, but to be more specific about the kind of drama used in my film I did some research and came up with the perfect subgenre for my film, which was psychological drama. This is because the flashback colouring reflects his mind distorting his memories, and so the viewer also comes into the picture as they are drawn into his mind through the effects used and become involved “in his world”. There would also be an element of tragedy in this film, but this only occurs with the most recent memories, the “adult” memories, which symbolises that something bad has happened around that time for his happy memories to change appearance in his head so dramatically (we can tell the perception in his mind has changed as some memories are shot from his point of view; eg- from Ashley to Rachel smiling to him, and also the editing in the more recent memories are changed when at the end of each flashback the colours dramatically change into fluorescent & bright colourings).


The music used in my film is similar to the credit sequence in films such as The Titanic, Narnia; the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Momento – they are all very dramatic music tracks used, and I thought this would represent the story of Tangled Strings without actually telling the overall story


Also, I created my own Productions logo for my film as I wanted it be seemed more realistic as a whole, and therefore using real media conventions.


The name I chose for my logo is “World View Productions”, which is similar to “Universal Productions” as a name.

It is represented with a colourful iris with the world as the pupil of the eye it forms. The background is the rest of the universe in which the eye/world is in.

The theme music I chose for my logo was the beginning of “Another Part of Me” by Michael Jackson. It seemed to me and a few other media students in my classroom I asked their opinion on about this track for this cause, to be very similar to what another real media product would use to represent their Productions logo.

In this case, the “World View Productions” logo, I found, captured the viewers’ attention to watch the film – maybe due to it looking so colourful and unusual.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Tangled Strings mainly represents people with some sort of disability (this could be mental or physical as the main character is not so far showing obviously if it is one, the other or both), which is not openly spoken of, but affects so many round the world, and their relatives. And as this film is taken from a real life story I have witnessed, it would seem more realistic than for someone who hasn’t experienced this in real life – so, I believe, lots of people would be interested to see or identify with Adam’s story.



As the sequences is taken from his point of view, as the main character, maybe adults would prefer to watch this film as it is serious and tells a dramatic story from the point of view in which Adam lives it.


Claire is represented in this sequence of the film as the jewel of his life, and even though we are seeing his life story from his point of view, she is the main focus of it since they were kids, until they are grown up – this shows the viewer his particular focuses in life and may identify with the main character as it is very likely that most grown ups watching this film may have found love in their lives and therefore identify with the characters feelings throughout it.


In this sequence of Tangled Strings, there are only white people represented as there are only two people so far and it is set in England. But if I was to carry on the film I would make sure I represented more ethnic groups as important characters because this would draw in a bigger audience as even more people would identify with the situation the main character is in.

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

As it is low budgeted, and probably sponsored by the “Film 4 and The British Film Council”, the chances are that it would be shown on low budgeted TV channel dedicated to students. This would allow students around the country to express and share their ideas through a common net.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

This film would be mainly aimed at adults or at least 15+ teenagers, because if I was to carry on the film this one would become much more emotional than the opening sequence, as this is only the back-story. And another reason is also because younger children may find it boring right from the opening sequence (as said by one of my classmates and my own brother). And also because the content is very serious, and it wouldn’t be a film which a family would enjoy to watch on their free Sunday afternoons.

 But it would not be recommended for people who may be very affected by any similar issues represented in this film, especially if I was to carry it on, because it being a current problem that affects the minority of the population and as it is a dramatic film which follows an emotional life journey for someone who suffers a psychological illness, and knows that sooner or later will have to give up the love of his life to not hurt her, this may mean that some members of the audience may identify with and may affect them emotionally, which would defeat the objective of my film making: to entertain people. Some groups of people may have experienced some sort of illness similar to the one represented in this film and may bring back memories which are not pleasant to them – for example; If I showed this film to the couple I based my inspiration on, it may affect them some way psychologically because I have based it on their real life experiences on how they are tacking this illness. So in this case they may not perceive this film to be an entertaining and joyful thing to watch as it is based on a real life issue.

 It would also not be recommended for people who don’t enjoy similar film genres, such as melodramas, medical dramas and tragedies – eg: Sea Inside or The Titanic.


 As this is a story which the viewer has to engage with the character right from the start, I think the older the viewer is, the more likely they are to enjoy this film as some of their life experiences, such as finding true love and / or maybe losing it, is shown through the debate going through Adam’s mind during the film. And it is also a film people could reflect about after watching it, because it shows issues raised in real life and also gives a lot to think about which we could lose in our life time with such fragile health, some younger viewers could also benefit from finding out how some people cope in life (like Adam) or even about what they can gain or lose in their own life.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

In the Tangled Strings opening sequence, the camera shows a comparing using the shot-reverse-shot; we can start to see the world through Adam’s eyes (the main character, which we find out later on in the sequence). This would immediately draw the audience into the film as we can, from the start, engage with the story from a point of view shot from Adam’s perspective.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I had bought my own video camera before doing this shoot, but what I did not realize before I bought it was that the format of this camera was not compatible with the IMacs, which meant that the technician had to download lots of computer programs which allowed us to convert my original video into an MPEG4 format, which would then allow me to download all of my footage on to the IMac to even start editing – this took several days to work out what the initial problem was (why the videos where not compatible with the IMacs), download the programs for the conversion and to finally process the clips into MPEG4 files.



This experience helped me understand better how and why different files work, how to identify the problem using the IMac, what programs to download if in the future I experience this problem, how to convert the files into the most efficient format and the amount of pixels to use for the best quality of resolution on the screen .


Apart from the problems above, I also learnt that using very short clean cuts didn’t allow the Mac to play the film efficiently, as I experienced when this one kept pausing and “jumping” when I attempted to make the transition between “mini - Claire” and “older – Claire” in short, clean cuts lasting 0.4 seconds long.

Also, the logo (which I made lastly), had to be produced on Photoshop to create the desired effects and also use “brushes” which can be downloaded on the internet.


This resulted to be very different to the simple technology used on the iMac to add effects on pictures added into iMovie. I have learnt that to construct a detailed picture I have to use many different layers of brushes and mount them up on the one space to create a very detailed and professional looking picture, or in my case Productions logo.

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

I have learnt to use more realistic detailing to my film which is similar to real media products. For example; the Productions logo I created for the opening sequence of Tangled Strings hadn’t occurred for me to use in The Robbery.


Tangles Strings has allowed for me to do more research into real media products around the world and has helped me see why some film openings created more of an impact on people than other people.

Also, by asking student (during the production) what worked better or worse in Tangled Strings, I have noticed that most people were happier watching the swan at the start of the film than the later on memories, such as the hospital appointment. This made me think during the production of the film how to make the earlier memories be perceived sweeter and gentler than the “adult” memories, so that I could create that contrast which would be the cause for the impact on the audience – this was not possible in the preliminary task as the contrast, in that case, between both characters was down to the their acting skills, and I could not do anything about it.