Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions for real media products?
In our thriller film opening we followed the conventional order. The main conventions that we used in our film opening is music, titles and editing.
Music is used to set the mood or atmosphere of film and also helps create a certain atmosphere.
Titles are also very important as it gives the audience more awareness as to who made and was in the film. This includes : production company ident, name of director, name of actors and actress and the name of the film.
Editing was heavily used throughout the entire clip. We wanted to create a series of specialised cuts to create drama and tension.
Our main reference for the film opening is from 'Se7en,' we got the idea of filming different movements and generally action to build up some tension. In 'Se7en' there was also cuts of different movements and objects. The quick cuts create a very tense atmosphere.
Our opening is very close to the opening in 'Seven' in terms of the titles and shots we used.
However, for the soundtrack we used a low-toned mysterious sound to play throughout the opening. We used the opening of 'Enemy of the State' to compare the soundtrack. In the opening the soundtrack is fast which shows that the film is action-packed. However, we used a slower soundtrack to suggest mystery.
Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? In the photobucket slide, the images represent a stereotypical image or representation of women. The images shows that woman are undermined by the dominated male species and are always at constant battle for rights. Our thriller opening shows that the agent is self-driven and she too has to cope with a lot which is the same to many other women. The social groups in our film is gender and regional identity. Gender is portrayed in both positive and negative way. Its negative as men look down at women and are more dominating, however its also positive as women are portrayed as strong and confident. Regional identity is also positive as women are working, wearing smart clothing and the fact that they are in the city shows that they are smart and capable of working. In our film we contradict the stereotypical image of women, as we represent women as dominating and able. We show them as being a women of action during the bag swapping scene and also in the office scene when the main character is circling an image of the suspect. Our film shows that it is a women controlling the action meaning the entire film which shows that they are controlling the plot of the film. This undermines the power of the dominant male as it shows that a women is in charge and is the main character of the film.
Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Here is a wordle which decribes our target audience who are mainly young male adults mainly 18+
We chose this target audience as the sub-genre which is a spy thriller is one of the most popular sub-genres that audiences prefer the most. Our target audience enjoys films that are more engaging and thrilling.
The main gender would be male. We felt that this would be an appropriate group to target as we felt that the action would make them want to watch it.
The general interests for our target audience would ideally be social networking, sports such as football and basketball, video games such as xBox games such as FIFA, computers and films, mainly action and adventure such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Bad Boys.
Here is short clips with the reviews from our audience. The video is divided in to three sub-sections such as what they liked about the film, did the sountrack suit the film and what do we need to improve next time.
The mise-en-scene would attract our target audience because they don't really get to see the character but they can see the surroundings which makes it very mysterious. The storyline would also attract our audience because our sub-genre is spy thriller and this could attract them because it contains action and adventure. I felt that a well known landmarks like Tower Bridge would be a way to attract UK audience. We came up with the name 'CODE RED' because the colour red is significant to our theme of the film.
The rough cut feedback was very important as we could see what we had to improve on and also gave us new ideas to try out.
The videos above explains the audiences' reaction and views towards the film during the Cinema screening.
Overall, the audience enjoyed the concept of the film and the different cuts and special effects used. They also liked the soundtrack as it flowed with the opening.
However, we also had views that the opening dragged on for too long and this may have lost the plot or concept of the film.
Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? In my opinion I feel that there is a great difference between the preliminary task and the final film. One example of difference was with the research between the preliminary task and the final film opening as for the preliminary task we did not do any research at all. However, for the final film we had to research a lot of areas to be full prepared. With the preliminary task we understood the use of match cuts and how effective it can be when applied correctly. We also understood the concept of the 180 degree rule. The 180 degree rule states that the camera should stay on one side. The aim is to allow the filming to stay interesting, but whilst not breaking the continuity of the shots. To avoid confusing the audience, this rule isn't usually broken especially in cases such as a convention and action sequences. However, sometimes the rule may be broken for effect, for example, if the aim is to purposely disorientate the audience. It may also be used to set the scene. In our preliminary task, we decided not to break the 180 degree rule.
During the preliminary task , another thing was that we did not put too much effort in the different shots that we wanted to use even though we created a storyboard, however after careful planning for the film opening we decided to use various number of different shots such as match cuts and rapid quick shots to create a very effective opening and too do this we created a very detailed storyboard for the final film opening.
Another thing that we did not organise for the preliminary task was the props, we used what ever was in the room at the time. One thing, however, we did organise was the location which was in Tony's office.
Here is the final preliminary video:
For the final film, we researched more about the genre and which sub-genre most people enjoy, we also understood the codes and conventions of a typical thriller opening. We also researched different thriller films that can help inspire us but the one that we got our inspiration was from the film'Se7en,' we really liked this opening in particular as it covered what we really wanted for our own opening. We used the stylized shots, the rapid cuts and the effects of the titles from the film 'Se7en' as it made us feel our adrenaline was increasing, creating more tension making the audience want to watch more. This what we were aiming to with our opening.
We also planned our locations and decided to go to a well-known location for example Tower Bridge. We chose this location as it is one of London's iconic location and the fact that the audience can relate to the opening.
Another great difference between the preliminary task and final film is that we thought a lot more abou the storyline for the final film and how we can add the conventions that we learnt onto our film This shows that we used our developed to create a better quality and effctive film. By planning everything and putting more effort in our ideas we knew what w ecan do and what we had to do, for example by creating a full developed storyboard, we had a visual idea of the outlook of the overall product/ film.
Here is the rough cut of the opening of the film.
In the preliminary we used a lot of match cuts and a few close ups instead of long continous shot where the camera is following the character to their location. We used the cuts to change the the shots and keep it more interesting otherwise it seems to drag if there was no chance. During the filming, we were confident with the camera as we got everything done quickly with no problems as the shots we took was simple.
PLEASE IGNORE THE PRIVATE VIDEO, BLOGGER IS ACTING WEIRD.
The lighting was very simple as well. For the preliminary excerise it was a natural lighting, nothing was added, however for the final film, we used a spot light to make the office look dim and dark. We did this to creat a mysterious atmosphere. What we did was turned off the lights, closed the blinds and focused the spot light in one area in it lowest setting.
The light made a signinfficant amount of change as for both films we used Tony's office however, in the film film, it looks like a office not Tony's office. We were able to tranform Tony's office and made it look like two different locations and this reflected well for our film as it looked really professional.
The sounds in the preliminary task was very simple, all we added was a soundtrack to play during the beginning part of the film, however, we it came to the final film, we realised that sound was the key point in our film as there is no speech. We added a soundtrack for Soundtrack Pro however we also added our own foley sounds such as the pen tapping, and typying on the computer. This was very effective as we that they were in this type of situation and the tense was increasing.
In the preliminary task, we mainly used a lot of match cutsand cuts, as this was a very simple scene. however, in the final final there was a wide range of rapid cuts and match cuts . The transitions was also used toshow sthe journey from the office to Tower Bridge. This skills has started to expand as we started using more complex skills. This made it look more realistic and not dragging on for too long.
In the preliminary task, the mise-en-scene was not considered to be very important for the task, but also the fact that you can easily tell that the location is in the office. For the final film weplanned what type of props wewould need. Forexample, the polaroid snaps of the criminal, the brief case, the labelled map, teh case files, the outfit (red nails, red lips) and the office scenery and so on. This enabled to develop our skills as it showed that we though a lot about the outlay of the location and what we could do to make it look like a spy's office.
The titles in the preliminary task was a mixture of pink and white, this was because it the titles were black it into the background. It was very plain and dissolved in out. In the final film we planned to have whote coloured titles as it would stand out from the dark background, and would aslo ake it easier and clearer to read. The titles in the final film were played throughout the office scene as the London Bridge scenewas the narrative to the film.
During this experience I have learnt that teamwork is really important if you want to make a good quality video. I found the whole project really exciting and I'm really glad that I had two great partners!
Here is some images of adding the title sequence. We added some effects to the titles to suit the theme of our thriller. The titles disslove in the screen
The group came back today to finish the soundtrack for the opening. Overall it was a long process and took a lot of time. However we had finished it just in time
During the re-edit of the film, we noticed that the saved clip had changes that we didn't expect to come up. There was a change in the font for the distribution company which lacked its excitement.
We noticed that we had to add more effects in each clip as if one had an effect the following didn't look quite as good.
This was very time consuming and a long process.
We had some inspiration from previous student films.
