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

From our previous preliminary task i have learnt to manage time, because when we first did our preliminary task we thought that time was not that important until we actually started shooting the film, one tiny scene took us about 2 hours.

I have also learnt that the cameras need to be charged in case they are low in battery, because if its not charged you will have problems being that you wont be able to use the camera. To avoid this in our main task, we made sure the cameras were fully charged.

I have learnt that organisation plays a big part and also planning, they are both really important if you want to make sure you get the things you need to be done done. To do this we made a storyboard, time schedules for meeting etc.

I have learnt that risky camera angles like these are appealing to the action audience because of the risky-ness of the situation thats what they enjoy in action films.

Low angle shot

I have learnt that sometimes you need to get out your comfort zone and do things that u do not normally do to capture something that for example you cannot capture standing up.

Low angle shot and Two shot

Low angle shot, Two shot and close up

wide angle//long shot

This is the 180 degree rule that we enforced in our tasks

Examples

Evaluation question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

These are pictures and explanations of the technology  equipment we have used and how it was used.

Other camera stands that were used with the cameras

Camera chargers to charge the film cameras

These are the cameras we used to capture our task videos

Problems: The video cameras often ran out of battery so we had to make sure they were charged

The camera quality was to a very low standard

Tripods we used to hold the camera, it was useful because it gave us a range of camera angles,  it was also useful because it was small enough to be taken around as a portable object.

Problems: An object that had to be carried everywhere and taken back to its original home

This is Blogger.com, this was used to post everything we have done, from the video to the researched information everything had to be placed on this wall .

Problems: it was complicated to set up but go the hang of it after a while

This is youtube, we used this to get a video link of our continuity task to post on our blog, it was also used for watching examples of film openings and watching openings that influence and are similar to our film opening.

Problems: Youtube was not available at school, it was blocked so we could only use it at home

This is imovie, it played a massive role in my media products, this was the soul software for editing,  adding our video, audio and effects to make our finished film opening it is, it was also hard to use at the beggining but was able to get the hang of it after a while, it was fairly simple to use.

Problems: The software was quite complicated to use and we had to just teach our self how to use it

This is google, a search bar on the internet where i was able to search anything relating to our media task. For example definitions and pictures. It came in useful because when i wanted to find out a meaning of something i could just come on the and search it, this was also helpful because it gave me pictures that i could post on my blog.

Problems: Some researched information can be different and not completely true

This is a software called garage band, it was used to make music for our continuity excersise and out main task - the film opening, it came in useful because it had a good variety and range of loops to use to put together some musical techniques or a song to add to out videos, it made it have more effect on it. At the beggining it was quite complicated to use but as time went on we got used to it and got the hang of it.

Problems: At first it was quite complicated
Learning how to use the software with no help

Evaluation question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

In order to attract our particular audience we have to make our film opening appealing and interesting for them to like and watch more of the film.

We did this through the making our film similar through the genre of the film. We wanted our film to represent thriller/action films, however our film represented a thriller more than an action film because of our dreamy kind of atmosphere and sort of be mysterious.

The Cinematography side of things are directly adressed to our audience this is because we use the element of risk, this would definately appeal to our target audience.

For example, the driving over the camera angle was our risky shot.

Attracting our audience with the use of sound. to do this at the opening of our film we used heavy breathing to emphasise the aloneness and empytness of the situation and how it was really quiet.
We did this because we wanted the audience to think that we were iscolated and alone.]

We did also use a questionnaire so that we could identify our target audience.

Evaluation question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

These are the completed questionnaire reviews that i took a picture of, it reveals the final answers for our target audience, we put 2 of these questions into a bar chart and pie chart.

 This is an image off the internet that gives and example of a scarface target audience member, this is useful because it identify's interests of this individual.

Here are some other images underneath.

We recognised that horror and action were the most popular genres. Fiction based films had a lot of votes. Our chosen genre was action/thriller and crime but watching our film opening it looked more like a thriller/action, this gives us a wider range of audiences for our film

Target audience are based on age, gender and martial status. This determines the amount of types of people that will come to watch your product. We chose action to be a genre in our opening because it was the most popular genre this means that we could gain a good amount of audience that would be interested in it. I think this is because there is always some type of scene of action or movement going on. The bar graph underneath indicates that people prefer to watch fiction films that are not real.

The target audience in our film is similar to our ages being that Mitch and I are young youths in to fast cars, driving and getting into trouble, these are sterotypes to teenage boys these days.

 

This is a typical boy, boys this age like a lot of things, they like food, playing football, playing rugby, hanging out with mates, PS3 & Xbox, fast cars, like to shop at JD, footlocker, top shop, h&m, Bank, bench, size, office, river island, Hollister, they would listen to music like rock&roll, R&B, Hip hop, Rap, Reggae.

I would say their favourite TV programmes are, Top boy, misfits, the Inbetweeners, waterloo road, Youngers and skins.

A boy like this would watch our film because its interesting, the way in which  his age is associated with our age and we  have similar interests, our film relates to fast cars and teenage boys getting into trouble, i feel this would appeal to a teenage boy because this is know as typical things teenagers would do.

Appeal to the audience

Violence

Editing 

Voiceover

Evaluation question 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Our film that we have made is based on The fast and furious(2001)
its an action/thriller/crime film.

Film distribution is the process where a movie is made available for viewing to an audience by making a film distributor. It can be accomplished in a variety of ways; for example, a theatrical release, home entertainment release(DVDs and Blu-ray dics)  or a television program for broadcast syndication and could include digital distribution.

Our group have decided that our film is not going to be a nig budget Hollywood style film with stars, we prefered to have a more gritty british kind of film with a low budget. This is because it is very expensive to produce all this. We deecided to have a low budget of £2million just like the film fish tank. This was directed by Andrea Arnold who we would have also as our director as she also directed redroad. We watched her film fish tank recently and liked the way she directed the film thats why we chose her.

Relating our film to fish tank their production companys consist of BBC Films, UK Film Council, Limelight Communication. We decided to use Limelight Communicatioon as onr of our production companies and UK Film Council which has changed to BFI because they have taken over.


 


This distribution company we chose would be Artificial eye because the distrubed the film fish tank.


The reason we dont need a big budget is because we can use unknown actors into the market and they can become famous in time but it does give a chance for unknown actors to have a chance at being starred and becoming better known, it also saves money on our budget, for example if we have to pay for a hollywood star to star in our movie it would cost nearly all our budget. Using new talent is what we want to do, using new talent can make a movie unique and special in its own way.

How and where we would advertise...

As a group we chose that we would show our films in art houses and independant cinemas, such as the water shed. The water shed is most famous for releasing low budget local films for a profit. Doing this could promote our film but also promote the venue aswell. Its also an inexpensive venue to use so we feel it would be a good place for viewing.

We would advertise this by handing our flyers and leaflets all around bristol and outside the radius around the city. a few billboards too, but we think our film would benefit from internet promotion and word of mouth.


We would like our film to recieve an award at the British Independent film awards this is because we feel it would benefit our film and recive a mass amount of recognition.

Evaluation question 2 - How does your media product represent a particular social groups?

Representation - has a description of signs that stand old boldly and take the place of something else. Through representation people are able to know and have an understanding of the world and the reality through the act of naming it. Signs are manipulated in order to make sense of the world.

For example, to look like or resemble, to stand in for something or someone, to present a second time to re-present

This then means that media texts are composed, lit, written, framed and cropped, captioned, branded, targeted and censored by producers. They are entirely artificial versions of the reality we perceive around us in society.

Important facts  - without the media our perception of reality would ultimately be very limited and also being that we are an audience we need these artificial texts to mediate our views of the world and society, basically we need the media to make sense of reality.

Therefore, to us representation is a fluid, its a two way process where producers position a text somewhere in relation to reality and audiences assess in a text on its relationship to reality(your job)

For example in our film opening we have two teenage boys, Which is Mitch and I.
We represent teenage boys at and age between 16-18.

Examples of signs - signs help us identify whats being re-presented. We have to decode them.

Glasses + bow tie + Pocket protector = Nerd

In films if you often see a guy dressed smart with glasses and stationary and also speaking with a complicated vocabulary at a fast pace, you would often look at then as being a geek/nerd.

Social groups we are concerned with....... Age, Gender, Ethnicity, Sexuality, class and status, Physical abiliy/disability and Regional idnetity.


Regional identitys  have many common sterotypes, for example

Scotland - Ginger, accent, wet weather, kilts.

Liverpool - Crime, Football,

London - Rich and poor contrast, gun crime and stabbing, hoodies and have a cockney accent.

Midlands - Gloomy, Boring, Suicidal and have a diverse cultural background

Wales - Vast countryside, live in the valleys, accents

Ireland - Ginger, fast talking, accents, guiness 

In our media film opening

Age: 17 and 18

Gender: Male

Race: White and Black british


Picture of Mitch














This is a picture i have chosen to have similarites to my main character (Mitch)
This is Joseph Cross he burst upon the scene and quickly became one of Hollywood's most sought-after actors. His natural talent and raw energy are quickly earning him a reputation as one of the most promising young thespians.

Born: Joseph Michael Cross
May 28, 1986 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA

Diferences

He is different from our main character because he is famous, a big star actor, he is much older than our character, has had acting classes and has starred in other movies. Born in America, much more wealthy.

Costumes: Set costumes that are chosen by the production team. Wheras our character uses casual everyday clothes

Similarities

Similar things, he is a boy, smart looking, brunette hair, White male, young, plays the main character.

Role: Both are the main Chaaracters of the film


Messages and Values

Joseph Cross and Mitch Hill - the main characters of films represent Masculinity, being that they have strength(Physical and Intellectual)

Physique (Buffness)

Independence

Represented as Iscolated, as they dont rely on others

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

The conventions in this frame show a close up of my face, this is a close up, the effect it has on the film is that shows the characters facial expressions, thsi is why we did it. How? We used one of our props which was the camera and zoomed up right close to my face. The effect on this was also to see the (fake) blood rolling down my face.



This frame was effective becasuse its of Mitch and I. A two shot is used to show this, and it is effective because it encompasses a view of two people. How? The person with the camera stood at the side of us to get the right andgle and shot.

why? because it shows Mitch and I in one shot showing me in the background and also show Mitch looking at me to the right.





This frame I felt was really good. Its of some (fake) blood dripping on to the cards indicating someone who has been cut. It is effective and mysterious because you cannot see the person it is dripping off and it just give a sence of mysteriousness. To do this we set the camera angle pointing to the ground and carefully squeezed blood out of the litle packet. In the film we made it stand out and mean a little more by revesing the shot. The voice over states that it will
takes au back to what happened previously.

This shot was good in this frame where the car drives right over the camera. It is effective because it shows the movement and speed of the car. It also gives our main task a range of angles that the car can be seen on. I have seen many of the shots in movies like need for speed/fast and furious. This is how i was able to think of this idea. To do this we placed the camera in the middle of the road, it was abit risky but it paid off.



In another film that influenced us I found similar shots that they use. You can see the low camera angles they use to show a sense of power making the cars look bigger.

This shot in this frame I also see in movies, it is effective because it shows the car stopping to a hault, instead of showing the whole car showing one feature of the car has more emphasis.
 To do this I had to get on the floor and lay on my front on the white line, waiting for the car to stop in the exact framing of the camera. This is a popular angle that is shown a lot in action films.
For example, Red line.





In this frame it show Mitch and I walking towards the car and about to get in. It is effective because it is a two shot showing both our movements in the exact point of time. The camera was placed infront of the car. This is shown in other movies where there are two characters that you want to see in one frame.

This two shot from Born to Race is used and it is similar to our shots we used. it influenced us because it encompasses a view of 2 peoples actions at that present time together, so we used this angle but from behind.





This is where Mitch and I have entered the car and we have just put our seat belts on. This is also where Mitch starts to talk to meabout judging cars, but in this clip we decided to turn the volume down and have a voice over on top. We could still roughly here in the background Mitch and I having a conversation and joking around.






This is where the opening credits come in, we did it this way because we already had a twon shot of Mitch and I which made sence to put both our names there as we were there at the same time and it concluded the film opening. We edited this on top to look more bold.


















This frame is and important frame, its where our title comes in. We chose to place it at the end because it didnt really fit the part at the begining and we thought that at the end it can fade in at the same time the car monuvers round the corner. When we watched it back it looked brilliant and definately fit the part. The colour we chose was to be a bright white bubbly font to stand out on top of the red car making sure the audience knows what our film is called.




Typical analysis of how we have used conventions in a typical way

Being that our film opening is an action/thriller film, there are many conventions.

The action conventions consist of certificates of an age for 12/15, maximising youth audiences.
They are often hybridised with Sci Fi/Adventure/Romance, Major hollywood studio produced and distributed. They have high production values including CGI FX and fast pace editing. They usually include a Classic Hollywood 3 act narrative structure, Predictable chain of events - cause and effect, single stranded, linear, closed narrative, Dramatic non-diegetic sound, More narrative action codes than enigma codes, Clear binary oppositions, Star Marketing: Audience identification/expectations, (Cruise/Pitt/Willis/Thurman/Jolie/Stallone/Craig/SchwarzeneggeDi Caprio…). ,Generic Typecasting and Secondary Persona apply, Romantic sub-plot, Humorous dialogue, Relationships with new technology (youth audiences), Use of close up/Insert shots/High Key Lighting.


This underneath is the conventions of a thriller film.

Reference back to my blog, previously I posted information on film openings.

Typical conventions i have used for a film opening.

Firstly our film opening contains two mails who are the main characters this is typical and essential in and opening as it also states on the film opening information above. A film opening would also include opening credits, our main task does this as well and has a frame to show this but we put our towards the end of our opening because we thought it looked better there. A film opening consists of a film title in which ours is place at the end because we thought it had more effect rather than placing it in the middle or the beggining.

However as it does say above some films don't use conventional openings such as; lack of credits, establishing shots, main characters may not be introduced.

There are many types of film openings, there are: 

• An animated title sequence - creatvie portrait
• A narration over - nengages audience audibly aswell as visually
• A compilation of photographs - portrays themes and relationships between characters
• A Flash-forward - shows how film is concluded
• A Flash back - background information related to storyline
• A Pan of an establishing shot

Our film opening has a narration over, a flashback and a flash forward. This can be identified when the blood dripping in reversed action is shown.

Aspects considered across the nine frames...

Setting - In the second frame the location was in a shed, it had substantial lighting however it was low lighting, we had to travel to nevil road by bus to get to this location.

We used this shed because it enacted as a small confined room where Mitch and I are isolated from the outside. I am unconsious and Mitch is tied up and badly bruised 
around his face.

The 4th and 5th frame is at the location of a Tesco car park in brislington, we used this as an area where Mitch could drive to pick me up. It was a good local place that had lots of things going on in the background so it made our clip feel more of a sense of realism.

Costumes & Props - 

1 Red SEAT IBZA - this came in useful because it represented something in our film opening, this car was going to be raced during the film, although it does not show this in our opening the car plays and important role. It was also used to get our group to the tesco car park location. We had a variety of camera angles showing different concepts of the car from different angles and views.

The fake blood came in useful at the beggining because it represented someone being hurt, bruised, cut, death and overall represents a conflict/problem. This was shown rolling down my face at the begging seen and appeared again dripping on the playing cards in reverse.

3 Cameras were used to capture different angles,shots and movements in different times, we also had to obey the 180 rule which is also shown on my blog.   >file:///Users/08mcfarlanep/Desktop/Screen%20shot%202014-03-06%20at%2012.15.32.png

Make up was used to show that my face was bleeding and Mitch had been badly brusied on his eyes and lips, the was a success and looked very realistic.

Playing cards were used. They were scattered all around the floor and blood is shown dripping on them

Camera work and editing

Editing 

Reference to my blog, these pictures are evidence about the definitions for sound and editing 

In our editing we included some audio - Voice over - We did this because the wind was interupting a lot of the speach. 

We used a software called garage band to record our monologue.

Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non-diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations. The voice-over may be spoken by someone who appears elsewhere in the production or by a specialist voice actor. It is pre-recorded and placed over the top of a film or video and commonly used in documentaries or news reports to explain information.

Camera work

These are the camera angles we used in our film opening....

We attempted to use a range and a variety of different angles

High angle shot - We used this because the effect on it was looking down at a subject, it is to make an object feel vulnerable and powerless.

Two shot - A Two shot is a type of shot employed in the film industry in which the frame encompasses a view of two people (the subjects)

Low angle shot - A low-angle shot, is a shot from a camera angle positioned low on the vertical axis, anywhere below the eyeline, looking up.

Close up - A Close up shot has a zoomed in lens showing facial expressions up close.

Wide angle shot - In photography, filmmaking and video production, a long shot (sometimes referred to as a full shot or a wide shot) typically shows the entire object or human figure and is usually intended to place it in some relation to its surroundings.