Evaluation Activity 1

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

I chose the title of my film shown in shot 9, as it was relevant to the basic narrative plot. This could be seen as a challenge to the conventions of a real media product title, as normally in a crime thriller genre film the title has a clearer link to the plot of the film. For example, Shutter Island, the title of the film is the same as the name of the island in which the film takes place. This is also where the main character of the film is investigating.

In shots 3, 4, 6 and 7 you can see that my film is mostly set on a beach, the location shots fit in with the conventions of a real media product. To show the setting I used an over head shot from the tricopter, similar to shot 3 and 6 to act as an establishing shot. After this I used close-ups of the beach location through the characters in my film e.g. in shot 5 and 7 the audience is aware that it is set on a beach as the characters walk across or onto the beach. I think that I have challenged the conventions in a real media product by having the over the head shots of the dead body, which add to the on-edge atmosphere that you get with a crime thriller films.

I decided to keep my costumes realistic but natural at the same time, this is shown in shot 6 and 3. My main female is in modern and young styled clothing, to portray a childish and naive side to the character and to fit in with the younger generation of my target audience. For the policeman and forensic I decided to go for a realistic outfit to make the film feel real and therefore add more tension to it. These costumes fit in with the conventions for a real media product, as most crime thriller films will have a casually dressed victim and policeman in uniform.

Throughout my film opening I have tried to use a variety of shots and angles, which you would expect to see in a real media product. I have also used different editing effects, such as the one in shot 1 of the motion blur, to challenge the conventions of a real media product by adding a slow and distorted effect to the shot. This then contrasts well with the next shot being a fast motion of her running down the stairs, shown in shot 7.

I decided that the font of the titles was going to be basic when I incorporated it into my footage. I decided to go with the font shown in shot 4 and 8, as it was clear and easy to read and fitted well with the conventions of a crime thriller genre. In addition, I believe that it shows the audience a clear difference between the camera shots and the titles themselves.

My opening challenges the conventions of a crime thriller genre film as it leaves the audience with many different views on how the film ends and the relationships between the characters we see during the film opening. We can see that the girl is being stalked and murdered by the mysterious male character, but we are unaware if he is caught, the relationship between the victim and murderer and whether he kills anyone else.

I believe that my film opening clearly shows the audience that it is a crime thriller genre. This is mainly highlighted by the murder and crime scene, which is a main convention of crime thriller films. Also the addition of a stalker adds to the thriller side of the genre, leading to a mysterious and tension building quality to the film. My film challenges the crime thriller genre as my victim is very young and many actors in thriller crime genres tend to be a lot older. This makes the genre less obvious and maybe lead the audience to think that it is a different genre.

The characters are introduced separately apart from the crime scene at the end where we are introduced to the policeman and forensic at once, challenging the convention of a real film opening. We are introduced to the girl in shot 2 where she portrays a naive and childlike sense, whereas the murderer is introduced as a close up of his feet slowly following her down the road. My opening consists mainly of shots of the main characters in my film, the victim and murderer. I did this to show the audience their relevance in the film, which makes it a clear convention of most film openings.

Evaluation Activity 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I have researched male policemen and inspectors in crime thriller movies and compared them to the policeman in my movie to represent a particular social group. The policeman in my movie is played by Mark. Morgan Freeman and Eddie Marsan are well known actors that have been in a variety of films.

Morgan Freeman is an actor who has starred in many films such as the crime thriller, “Se7en”, which follows the story of two homicide detectives tracking down a sadistic serial killer who chooses his victims according to the seven deadly sins. Brad Pitt stars as Detective David Mills, a hopeful but naive rookie who finds himself partnered with veteran Detective William Somerset (Morgan Freeman). Together they trace the killers every step, witnessing the aftermath of his horrific crimes one by one as the victims pile up in rapid succession, all the while moving closer to a gruesome fate neither of them could have predicted. Morgan Freeman has been in a wide variety of films with a mixture of different genres, unlike my actor who has only starred in my movie, so has little experience with acting. One main difference between Morgan and Mark is the uniform they wear, Morgan wears a more relaxed police uniform consisting of a suit and casual hat. Whereas in my movie Mark wears the standard police uniform with the yellow jacket, police badge and hat. 

Furthermore, Eddie Marsan has also starred in many films, as well as crime thrillers, such as “Sherlock Holmes”. Eddie plays a mature, strict and intelligent character as Inspector Lestrade, which is similar to Mark’s mature and intelligent manor. Eddie is 44 years old, which is similar to Mark who is 47, showing that age helps to add maturity to the role and make the scene feel more realistic to the audience. Eddie plays one of the main roles in Sherlock Holmes as he is the head of the police department, however, in my film Mark only plays a minor role as the police officer.

I think that Mark would be a successful representation to social groups as he fits the conventions of a typical policeman role in a crime thriller film.

Evaluation Activity 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

A production company provides the physical basis for works in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio and video. The production company may be directly responsible for fundraising for the production or may accomplish this through a parent company, partner, or private investor. It handles budgeting, scheduling, scripting, the supply with talent and resources, the organisation of staff, the production itself, post-production, distribution and marketing.

A film distributor is a company that’s responsible for releasing films to the public, this is done via DVD, TV, Download, Blueray and more. A distributor includes securing or a written contact, enclosing the amount of the gross ticket sales which leads to transmitting the remainder of the income to the production company. The distributor also ensures that the film advertising material is available on each film to help the exhibitor attract the largest possible audience, such advertising if it isn’t provided by the production company, and arrange for the physical delivery of the advertising items selected by the exhibitor at intervals before the opening day.

By having a distributor it would help the release of a media product, attract a large target audience through advertisements, which would increase the chances of success. I would chose to release by film for home viewing via DVD’s, this would help attract a wider target audience, increase the publicity and encourage more audience members to watch it.

The best distributor for my media product is 20th Century Fox as it is a successful media distributor. In addition, in June 2008 20th Century Fox won ‘Retail Distributor of the Year’, ‘Rental Distributor of the Year’, ‘Overall Distributor of the Year’ and won a Marketing Award for ‘Best Film Marketing. So therefore I think that it would give my film a good chance of success.

For a film like mine, the funding would be very little and basic. Therefore I believe that most of the funds would probably be self-funded. To calculate the total cost of all the funds an estimate would have to be made including potential value of my film and theatrical releases over a 10 year period. If I was able to get someone to fund my film as an investor, the money to repay them would be from the film products made.

There are five main methods of financing the production of films:

• Government grants
• Tax schemes
• Private equity and hedge funds
• Debt finance 
• Equity finance

Evaluation Activity 4

 Who would be the audience for your media product?

After creating a survey online at the beginning of my project using SurveyMonkey, I found that my target audience would generally be male and females from the ages 17-25. I decided to do an interview of Gemma Dufty as she fits in with my target audience for my film. Gemma is 17 years old and lives in Jersey. After I showed her my final film I asked her a few questions about it e.g what she liked and didn’t like about it and decided to ask a few questions about her style and what she enjoys watching.

This is the answers from the interview with Gemma:

What type of film genre do you like to watch?

I like a mixture of things, but I especially enjoy Comedy and Thrillers.

What is your favourite film at the moment?

My favorite film at the moment is “The Hangover”.

What type of music do you listen to?

Again I like a mixture of genres, especially pop music like the kind you hear in the charts.

Where do you like to shop?

I mainly shop in Topshop and Primark, as I like the style of clothes they do and the prices are generally affordable.

What are your hobbies?

I like horse-riding, netball and swimming. I also like going out to the cinema with my friends.

Would you watch my film? Why?

Yes, I find crime thrillers interesting to watch, especially as it has official looking police to make it more realistic, interesting and dramatic.

Is there anything thing I could change about my film opening?

Nothing much I just think that the titles need to be a bit slower in some places. But overall it is a good opening with a clear narrative.

Evaluation Activity 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract my target audience I have included many different factors into my film. In order to attract my target audience I based my film on similar conventions of other crime thriller genre films with a similar target audience to me. 

I chose to have a young and naive victim in my film as it adds a more realistic feel to the film. I used Megan as my victim as she is young and has an innocent nature to her, which fits well with the type of character I wanted to portray in my movie.  By having a young girl, it makes her murder feel more dramatic and appeals more to my target audience age range, rather than if it was a middle aged women as the victim.

When adding my sound to my film in Soundtrack Pro I decided to use a mixture of different drones and repetitive ambient music effects to build up suspense and enhance a dramatic atmosphere to the film in order to engage the audience and to portray the types of sounds you would generally hear in a crime thriller genre.

I think that I have used an easy to follow narrative for my film to attract my target audience. I also made it follow the same conventions as a typical crime thriller genre film, which would have a similar target audience to my film.

Evaluation Activity 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I also learnt how to use a Tricopter which is a flying copter with a gopro camera attached to the front to capture footage from above. I used this to fly over the crime scene and the dead body to add some interesting camera shots to my movie opening. However, this is more difficult than it looks as when you fly it you have to wear the glasses to see what footage the gopro is recording so that you know where you need to move the copter in order to get the best footage possible.  I have a picture of me with the glasses on in the post, “ Filming Day Part 1”.

Final Cut Pro.

Soundtrack Pro.

After Effects

The main thing I have learnt from making my movie opening is the skills to use programs such as; final cut pro, soundtrack pro, after effects and compressor available at school. During the making of my movie I have used my online blog on Blogger, to record all of my ideas, research and to put videos for various tasks we have done including Book Of Eli. By using my blog I have developed and learnt an effective and clear way to present my information through screen shots and videos.

In addition to my Blog, I have a Youtube and Twitter channel, which allow me to contact Mr Bonney when I need help and to share my videos online. This has widened my technical knowledge online and allowed me to make movies on programs like iMovie and Final Cut Pro, where I can import screen shots, video clips and voiceovers. Without the use of After Effects, FInal Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro I would never have known the extent of detail and resources available to create my final project.

Evaluation Activity 7

Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Looking back at my preliminary task compared to my final film I think that I have learnt a variety of different skills to help with my editing and camera angles in order to make the footage more interesting to watch. In my preliminary task, I used a small amount of camera angles and my editing was a bit jumpy in places, making it not flow very well. In addition, when I filmed my preliminary task I only filmed each clip once, so if I later found out that there was a mistake when I was editing it together, than I didn’t have a back-up clip to use instead. However, in my final film I ensured that each clip was edited so that it flowed smoothly, as I learnt how to be more precise when cutting the clips. I also made sure that each scene was filmed a couple of times just incase I missed something by not starting or stoping on time or if anything went wrong in the scene.

In my preliminary task we had to follow the 180 degree rule. This rule in film making is a basic guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between two characters or an object within a scene. An imaginary line, called the axis connects the characters and by keeping the camera on one side of this axis for every shot in the scene, the first character will always be framed right of the second character, who is then always framed left of the first character. If the camera passes over the axis, it is called crossing the line. 

180 Degree Rule

A match on action shot is when something happens in the scene then when it is cut the same piece of action must be going on. This is an example of continuity editing and is important in helping the audience understand what is happening.

Short reverse shot is a filming technique where one character is shown looking at another character and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.

I have used a long shot of Kelsey walking over to the table to have a chat with Gemma and Harry. I also used an over the shoulder shot of the conversation and lastly I used a close up shot of Gemma when she was speaking.

In my final film, I have used a variety of different camera angles and my editing is a lot smoother and flows better than the clips in my preliminary task. I have used camera angles such as close-ups, medium shots and long shots. 

1. This is an over the shoulder shot of Megan leaving the house and saying goodbye to her mum.

2. This is the second over the shoulder shot that I used in my film of the female character watching the little boy run ahead of her.

3 & 4. By jumping from the murderers feet, shown as a close up shot (4) to the girl looking behind her continuously (3), adds a dramatic feel to the film and lets the audience know that she’s being followed. However, it still leaves a slight mystery to the murderer as only his feet are shown using a close-up camera angle.

5. This is the motion blur effect that I edited in using Final Cut Pro, by having it blurred and slowed down slightly it builds up the suspense, as she begins to run away.

6. I used an over the head shot of the dead body to set the scene and to add an interesting view to the audience. I achieved this shot by using a tricopter with a camera attached to the front.

7. This close up shot of Jack’s feet as he runs across the beach reminds the audience of the murderers' feet chasing the young girl.

8. This last close up shot of Jasmine's face shows the audience the expression on her face and lets us know that she is shocked as she has just seen a dead girl on the beach.