The contributions that I made were some blogs on http://www.blogger.com/, such as, “Target Audience”, “Story Boards” and other blogs were done as a group blog i.e. “Initial Idea”, etc.
When it came to making the project my primary role was filming so I had to decide what shots to take and what angles to film.
Our media product is a relationship based drama about a mother who has brought her daughter up and been so close to her that she fears losing her to her daughter’s boyfriend. She also feels betrayed by her daughters actions and goes to the massive extreme of “Honour Killing” (this is when a family member decides to kill the family in order to keep the families name respected before the information of the betrayal shames the family name). So to prevent this, the mother “attempts” the traumatising plot, however we don’t know if she drops the match or if she is just having a thought.
The last scene the mother (Yasmeen Khalil), lifts a lit match up to her face creating an enigma of “will she, won’t she?” also if you watch it you could see it as being a thought after all the flashback without the full product nobody will know.
We have used typical elements such as ‘realistic issues’ and we based our ideas on the Riaz family who tragically died due to the father who struggled to communicate with his family and as a result the family got murdered.
We decided to make our relationship drama with an emotional but psychotic side to the mother so that it plays with the viewers emotions creating more enigmas and wanting them to watch more of the film.
We have used typical elements such as ‘realistic issues’ and we based our ideas on the Riaz family who tragically died due to the father who struggled to communicate with his family and as a result the family got murdered.
We decided to make our relationship drama with an emotional but psychotic side to the mother so that it plays with the viewers emotions creating more enigmas and wanting them to watch more of the film.
I think it is vital to have a new twist in the genre because the viewers would just get bored of watching the same thing over and over again therefore creating something new makes the viewer want to watch.
Our innovation were likely to prove successful because our idea of “honour killing” was new to relationship drama’s genre also it’s based on a true story.
Our product represents the Muslim culture, therefore we had to make sure the costumes were traditional e.g. head scarves. Their appearance had to be Muslim style, for example, we couldn’t have the mother with bright pink hair, tattoo’s, piercing, tank top and mini skirt roaming around with a bottle of whisky in her hand because it wouldn’t fit our criteria or targets.
We didn’t use speech as we thought it would be more effective to have emotional music playing over the product.
For our setting we used Sameena’s home; the lounge area, the stair case in the hall and the bedroom. We also filmed at college to show where the daughter was during the day. There were also some home movies that we put in for effect to show the daughter when she was younger and happy.
The lighting used at the beginning when the mother was sat in the dark was chiaroscuro lighting, the natural lighting coming through the window helped create this effect also when she is stood at the bedroom door half of her face is in the light from the bedroom light.
The chiaroscuro effect helped to signify the different sides to the mother; white= the emotional, caring side – black= the psychotic, jealous and paranoid side.
We also kept the mother in low key lighting to show she is unhappy even when she is in the light there is always some dark shadow on her face to show the sadness doesn’t go away. Whereas, the daughter is mostly in high key lighting to show she is very happy.
The sound used is non-diegetic and parallel sound, therefore, the viewers hear the music not the characters. Also the sound links with the drama.
In editing we used overlaps to smoothen out jumps in the product, we also used “dissolve flash”, a transition used to depict a flash back.
For cinematography, we used lots of close-ups to show confusion and paranoia in the mothers mind.
For our product the age range would be from fifteen upwards, as a child under that age restriction may not be able to understand the contents or meaning of the product. The gender for our product is both as it is a relationship drama, not a chick flick or action packed.
For ethnicity we have looked at the Muslim culture and how the daughter is growing out of her religion, so the mother thinks, therefore, to save the family name from disgrace she decides upon honour killing.
Having the Muslim culture in our criteria it may appeal to the Muslim and English cultures.
We had a screening for our product along with others, when ours had finished we handed out a questionnaire. I took three sheets at random and used them for our overall feedback:
3/3 said they’d watch it to answer the enigma’s created
1/3 said they think some things could be added to make the opening sequence clearer
2/3 said they understood the product
Overall, I think our product received positive feedback.
Our innovation were likely to prove successful because our idea of “honour killing” was new to relationship drama’s genre also it’s based on a true story.
Our product represents the Muslim culture, therefore we had to make sure the costumes were traditional e.g. head scarves. Their appearance had to be Muslim style, for example, we couldn’t have the mother with bright pink hair, tattoo’s, piercing, tank top and mini skirt roaming around with a bottle of whisky in her hand because it wouldn’t fit our criteria or targets.
We didn’t use speech as we thought it would be more effective to have emotional music playing over the product.
For our setting we used Sameena’s home; the lounge area, the stair case in the hall and the bedroom. We also filmed at college to show where the daughter was during the day. There were also some home movies that we put in for effect to show the daughter when she was younger and happy.
The lighting used at the beginning when the mother was sat in the dark was chiaroscuro lighting, the natural lighting coming through the window helped create this effect also when she is stood at the bedroom door half of her face is in the light from the bedroom light.
The chiaroscuro effect helped to signify the different sides to the mother; white= the emotional, caring side – black= the psychotic, jealous and paranoid side.
We also kept the mother in low key lighting to show she is unhappy even when she is in the light there is always some dark shadow on her face to show the sadness doesn’t go away. Whereas, the daughter is mostly in high key lighting to show she is very happy.
The sound used is non-diegetic and parallel sound, therefore, the viewers hear the music not the characters. Also the sound links with the drama.
In editing we used overlaps to smoothen out jumps in the product, we also used “dissolve flash”, a transition used to depict a flash back.
For cinematography, we used lots of close-ups to show confusion and paranoia in the mothers mind.
For our product the age range would be from fifteen upwards, as a child under that age restriction may not be able to understand the contents or meaning of the product. The gender for our product is both as it is a relationship drama, not a chick flick or action packed.
For ethnicity we have looked at the Muslim culture and how the daughter is growing out of her religion, so the mother thinks, therefore, to save the family name from disgrace she decides upon honour killing.
Having the Muslim culture in our criteria it may appeal to the Muslim and English cultures.
We had a screening for our product along with others, when ours had finished we handed out a questionnaire. I took three sheets at random and used them for our overall feedback:
3/3 said they’d watch it to answer the enigma’s created
1/3 said they think some things could be added to make the opening sequence clearer
2/3 said they understood the product
Overall, I think our product received positive feedback.
For attracting and addressing our audience we used chronology, for example, when we put a dissolve flash transition to show the mother thinking of the past in her present state of mind. When it was present we had low key lighting to show her as depressed.
Enigmas were used throughout by using only emotional music and absolutely no dialogue being heard. 
We also used binary opposites, for example, when the mother was shown depressed (always in the dark) and the daughter was shown happy (always in the light).
We also used binary opposites, for example, when the mother was shown depressed (always in the dark) and the daughter was shown happy (always in the light).
We built up tension by showing the mothers thoughts (flashbacks) and her gradually going to murder, for example, looking at the photograph, reaching for the matches, going upstairs to see the daughter, throwing petrol everywhere and then finally striking the match.
It also suggests a lack of communication between the two characters and as a result this could happen and from our research on our blogs this has recently happened therefore could be seen as reality.
For our research we used the internet; Youtube, Google, etc, and found them very useful when looking for our statistics and information on music, history, etc.
For our editing we used the Apple Macs, digital camcorders, video tape and computer software called iMovie, which was very useful for transitions, music, pacing the product, etc.
For feedback we used the computers to type up a questionnaire and handed them out after the screening.
Looking back at the preliminary task we learnt how to create lots of different angles for example, 45° angle, what panning and tilt shots are and the different shots concerning distance i.e. extreme close-up, close-up, medium close-up, medium shot, long shot and extreme long shot. we also learnt about the 180° rule and the nine grid rule. We found out that by following these rules for our final product would help us produce a realistic media product.
Overall, the strengths were definitely the choice of music and lighting on the product as it fits in well with the criteria. However, the weakness were the realistic look of the petrol can (milk
bottle), which could have been improved so that it looked more like a petrol can even if it were to be handmade. We could also of shown more close-ups of the petrol (water) to empathise the reasoning behind the milk bottle to show that she wasn’t pouring milk onto the floor.
My favourite part was the match scene because it worked really well and brought to light the mother’s true feelings, emotions and final decision in which the viewer is left wondering if she does start a fire or does she decide against the heart wrenching plot, this is my favourite enigma in our media product.
In my opinion I think our finished media product is a success and will appeal to a wide variety of people because its difference in the genre which has a bitter or sweet ending.
It also suggests a lack of communication between the two characters and as a result this could happen and from our research on our blogs this has recently happened therefore could be seen as reality.
For our research we used the internet; Youtube, Google, etc, and found them very useful when looking for our statistics and information on music, history, etc.
For our editing we used the Apple Macs, digital camcorders, video tape and computer software called iMovie, which was very useful for transitions, music, pacing the product, etc.
For feedback we used the computers to type up a questionnaire and handed them out after the screening.
Looking back at the preliminary task we learnt how to create lots of different angles for example, 45° angle, what panning and tilt shots are and the different shots concerning distance i.e. extreme close-up, close-up, medium close-up, medium shot, long shot and extreme long shot. we also learnt about the 180° rule and the nine grid rule. We found out that by following these rules for our final product would help us produce a realistic media product.
Overall, the strengths were definitely the choice of music and lighting on the product as it fits in well with the criteria. However, the weakness were the realistic look of the petrol can (milk
bottle), which could have been improved so that it looked more like a petrol can even if it were to be handmade. We could also of shown more close-ups of the petrol (water) to empathise the reasoning behind the milk bottle to show that she wasn’t pouring milk onto the floor.My favourite part was the match scene because it worked really well and brought to light the mother’s true feelings, emotions and final decision in which the viewer is left wondering if she does start a fire or does she decide against the heart wrenching plot, this is my favourite enigma in our media product.
In my opinion I think our finished media product is a success and will appeal to a wide variety of people because its difference in the genre which has a bitter or sweet ending.
