Findings about target audience

I have learnt that having a target audience is important when creating a media piece because you cannot make the piece suitable for all people. Whilst watching film openings in class I have seen that the movies have different genres which are suitable for different audiences. For example, i saw that in the horror openings we watched, the beginnings were dark and the fonts used were usually black or red. The way the horror film openings were set out made them feel quite scary and therefore it was obvious that they were suitable for an audience of young adults perhaps aged from 18 to 28.

 Planning to have a target audience also helps you to think about how to make the film suitable. Therefore, it is important to know your target audience so that you can think about what that age of people like and make the piece suitable and attractive to them. For our piece which is going to be a Thriller, I think our target audience will be for people aged 18 to 25. Therefore we will me aiming our film at young people who are probably still studying or just starting work. It is important to look at films in the same genre so that we can see who there target audience is and see how they attract their target audience. I feel that the certificate for our movie would be a 15 because the theme of the movie is quite scary, however not too violent and there will not be much swearing in out film. To attract this target audience we could make the video quite serious. We could also make it quite creepy and scary at points.

What I have learnt so far

For our preliminary task we were asked to film a 30 second piece using three different techniques. I was in a group with Sarah, Rani, Nancy and Melissa. During the task I have learnt a few skills and key terms whilst editing and presenting the video piece. In the task we had to include three different techniques. We firstly had to include a match on action shot. I have learnt that a match on action shot is when you film someone walking through a door and then have to get the correct timing of them coming out of the other side. After editing the match on action shot in our piece we felt it was quite successful as we edited it well and it was on time. Another shot we had to use was the shot reverse shot. I now know that the shot reverse shot is where one person is filmed and then the other person is filmed whilst they are speak to each other. We completed this and it worked fairly well, however it needed improvement because whilst editing we didn't cut it at the right points and there were mistakes.

Editing the video using Pinnacle was quite difficult, however I learnt how to do some techniques on the program. I realised how long it takes to edit even a short video which has made me understand more about timing when making a film. I found it was quite fiddly to use but once I had tried it a few times it became easier. We were able to cut the clips to the right times and also we cut some of the sounds out that we didnt need. Also, we added transitions to make the video flow better. We were able to add titles and credits onto the video. I think this preliminary task has been helpful and i have learnt some techniques and skills from it. From doing this task I have learnt how I can improve and make our next 2 minute video more successful.

Why planning and storyboading is important.

Before starting a task or creating a piece of media, planning and storyboarding is very important. Planning what you're going to do is important because it means that you can develop your ideas. Also having a storyboard is helpful because it means you have a rough idea already of what you are going to do and then you can begin to change and develop this further. Without planning or storyboarding, it would be difficult to complete a task to a good standard.

Why I chose Media

I decided I wanted to do Media for one of my A levels because I felt that I would enjoy studying different types of media and understanding it in more depth. I also liked the idea of creating and editing my own media. I think that Media will be a beneficial course and I will learn a lot through it.