What kind of media institution might distribute your media product?
“Revolver entertainment” is marketing led, independent distribution company. Founded 1997 the company has operations in both London and los angels. Revolver has released London urban drama film ‘kidulthood’. Kidulthood is a British drama that follows a day in lives of four poor youths living in an impoverished neighbourhood in West London, where the pressure and desperation of poverty propels each of them towards the choice between a life of bleakness, violence, and crime, and the terrifying prospect of striving for a better life.
“Revolver entertainment” is distributor of Kidulthood, and is received its funding from the UK film Council. Revolver received £76,200, which supported the production of an additional 20 points, as well as funding advertising specific to the teenage target audience. The funding from the Film Council was an attempt to bring a broader range of films to audiences across the UK. The director and co-producer, Menhaj Huda used a budget of £600,00. He believes that low budget adds to the authenticity of the film. The film was shot in 4 weeks. As a comparison, most mid-budget films would take between 4-6months to shoot. “Revolver entertainment” is youth orientated
Kidulthood is very influential to our media product.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The primary target audience for the film seem to be able to relate to the context of the film. The secondary audience may be those who are able to change things in society in order to tackle issues raised in the film. This may be those with power in society such as those in government etc. our core audience ranges from 15-24 and our wider audience group will be 26+. We have rated the film at 15 due to the fact because it contains strong language with a scene of violence. Our films helps to illustrate some of the norms of adolescent.
How did you attract/address your audience?
We wanted to show on screen, how teenagers watching look and behave in reality.The clothing worn by the characters is street wear commonly worn by the average teenager living in London.Most teenagers can identify with the clothing.Examples: hoddies, caps, trainers. The settings in the film reflect the realities of inner city life:council estates, public transport. Most of the action takes place on the streets and may give the film authenticity and believability. The music used in our film "Money trapped" falls into the genre grime and hip-hop attracting the target audience (teenagers) of urbanites who experience similar situations as the characters. The music used is produced by popular urban artists such as "Giggs".
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our media product uses a variety of forms and conventions that are seen in real film productions. Our film is an urban crime drama thriller. Our media product portrays and follows the lives of teenage London kids and develops stereotypical portrayals and also explores real issues. The codes and conventions of the genre are evident in the opening sequence -the inner city setting, the issues represented, and the behavior and language of the characters.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
we did some research to this particular aspect in order to ensure that we gave authentic and realistic representation. When developing our film opening sequence we have demonstrated teenage life. Making our film exemplify stereotypical attributes and personalities of teenagers. Our film represents the not so glamorous side of north London. our media "Money Trapped" also represents black youths whom are often unrepresented in the media, or are depicted using negative stereotyping.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
When creating our preliminary task there was not much editing involved, as we had to simply create a conversation occurring between two people consisting of a shot reverse shot. Therefore my skills of using both a camera and the editing software continuously progressed when creating our opening sequence.
I have gained alot of experience from producing our film. I think the most important thing i learnt about filming is the preparation being organised and relying on other members of your group. Its was quite hard making sure everyone in the group came and equally took part in the planning and producing of our film but we attained a very good working relationship.
When we initially began to edit our opening sequence we didn't know what to do, and personally I had never used iMovie before and in our preliminary task not much editing was needed. Consequently in order to understand the software better we watched several iMovie tutorials on the internet. This aided us.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Through the process of producing my media product I have gained various skills, I learnt how to use the video camera to film different types of shots for instances long shots i learnt that i had to zoom out to get an wider view or perspective of the location/ surrounding. I also learnt how to add titles and music to my media product,having used the video camera constantly I was eager to learn how it works. I also feel I have acquired alot of skills with the software (imovie) as I continually used it to edit and make changes to my film and i have become very familiar and confident using the imovie software although at first I found it very challenging but overall i have enjoyed producing my film.
