Blog Closed

My media blog is now closed and I won’t be putting any more post's on it. I have done a lot of research and planning and a lot of construction and also the seven evaluation questions. I also have my groups preliminary exercise on my blog and also our main film opening. I have learnt a lot throughout the filming and editing process and overall I am satisfied with the work our group got done. As a group we worked well together and I am happy with my blog.  

Evaluation Question 7

Q7.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?

We feel that we have progressed massively since the prelim exercise at the start of the year. We think that we already knew some basic shots, e.g. match on action and close-ups, this helped our Preliminary look good, but the quality and variety of our shots have certainly improved. As you can tell in our final piece, we use a lot more shot types, and experiment a lot more with angles. This makes our piece a lot more interesting and enjoyable to watch, e.g. POV shot when he is getting kidnapped, low shot of John Peters feet to show him walking.

Editing has been a major step in our progression, this is clear from even the introductory titles, they are seen in our final production are more professional and come in at certain times in a certain order that we have learnt from our research. The editing also allowed us to make the film flow better, it allowed us to add music to build up tension and make it more interesting to watch, as it got louder at more intense clips which was something we didn’t know how to do in our Preliminary

 

This is an over the shoulder shot of both me and brad at the same time. This is good because you can see what is happening in the background at the time of the shot. You can clearly see both parties talking and the camera angle is different to any others we have used.

 

 

 

This shot is also something new we have added as when we did this before we didn’t have a car available to use. This is a good shot because it is different and not everyone has the opportunity to be able to film these shots

 

 

 

This is a point of view shot from john peters view, during this shot brad (the drug lord) puts a bag over his head so he cannot see anything. This is a good shot because this is something that would be seen by the victim in an actual kidnapping, we have used this shot to make the overall film opening as good as possible.

 

 

This is a match on action shot of John Peters picking up the phone to his wife. This is a good shot because it opens the film and it gives the viewer a idea of the setting of the upcoming film. It’s a good place to start the film.

Evaluation Question 6

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

This is the camera which we were provided with for the filming of our preliminary video and for our film opening. The camera is the Canon Legria FS200 and it was a very good camera. The quality of the picture was a slight disappointment as it was not in HD and so made the overall quality of our production lack in professional quality and was not at the standard we imagined beforehand. Although the camera was very mobile as it is only a small, it was very suitable for the job we needed to do. We got to grips with how the camera worked very quickly and developed our skills with it by using different techniques such as; zooming in and out and panning. Also the good thing about the camera was that after we had filmed a clip we could watch it back. This was because of the small screen imbedded on the side of the pull out camera. Due to the fact we could watch it back it became easier to look at what had gone wrong in the clip so therefore we could shoot it again if we needed to, making better use of our time.

This is the software which we used to help us edit our film opening and our preliminary exercise. It is Adobe Premiere Pro, it was a very good software to use and once we got to grips of how to use it, it then became very simple and effective to use. However to start with it is very hard to work because it is so technical and has many advanced options. Due to the fact that we used this software for our preliminary exercise and our film opening look very good and have the effects needed instead of just clip’s being shown after another clip. We were able in our film opening to fade in and out of clips this gave it a much better effect and made the film opening flow whereas with our preliminary exercise it was just jump cuts because we were new to the software. It also made the shots more interesting and enjoyable to watch.

Some other technical software and sites we have used were Blogger and YouTube we used YouTube to gain advice from other people by sharing our videos and allowing them to post comments, this helped us develop our ideas and progress. Also Blogger was a diary site we used to keep all of the information of construction, pre-production, research and planning and everything else that went into making our production, it is a simple and basic and easy to use site which was easily accessible and reliable, we even had phone apps to make it more convenient to make posts in times we couldn’t access a computer.

Evaluation Question 5

Q5. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)

Our audience which we decided to aim our film at was the younger audience, mainly 16-18 year old boys as they would be the type of audience who would like our action film. The way in which we attracted our audience was through different things, these were; clothing fighting scene

 

Clothing would have attracted our audience as all the four characters were wearing clothes which not only a typical teenage school boy would wear, because their look smart and shows sophistication but because of the fact their clothes were trendy and in fashion at the moment. For example it shows how the smart outlook portrays our genre well, for example the crime side of it attracts the boisterous consumer we target.

Another factor that would have attracted our young audience was the fact that the boys were in a modified car which attracts most boys and is the desire for most young boys to own their own car. We had tyre screeching scenes and fast driving which is high octane and good action. The car had blacked out window which sums up the crime and secretive approach to our kidnap.

We also did a rough cut of our film and showed it to our class. We then were able to gain feedback from our class mates on how we could improve our film opening. The comments were positive and helped give us a sense of direction to what we wanted and needed to do with our film opening. This is how we addressed our audience by doing a survey and also showing a rough cut of our film opening in order to get a response and some feedback to our idea.

Evaluation - Question 4

Q4.Who would be the audience for your media product?

 

 

 

 

 

The type of audience that we believe would watch are film is the younger generation, with a keen interest in Action films. Mainly the younger generation of male audience between the age 16-24 years old as they have an original look and their appearance and clothing is very fashionable. The young male audience also are a role model to the younger teens as they have an original and stylish look, therefore the younger teens will want to copy them to keep up to date and in with fashion. This younger audience often have a large group of friends and are not the typical rebellious school boy’s; however they are not the smartest people either. They enjoy playing computer games and perhaps sports and usually shop at clothes shops such as Topman, River Island, Super dry and jack jones. They will be into music and will like a variety of genres. They also would like to watch TV programmes such as soaps, and sitcoms. In their spare time this audience likes to watch football and hang around with their mates and take life as it comes.

The reason why this type of person and audience would want to watch our film is because it is a Action film and therefore this would appeal to them. The reason why it would appeal to them is because it is a fast paced film so it will keep them intrigued and also due to the intense music it makes the movie flow and builds you up to expect something to happen, so it will keep them on the edge of their seats!

Evaluation Question 3

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

Our Production company name is Lunatic Productions, we decided on this because it was a word which helped to imply our crazy and imaginative ideas. Our logo was created as a counterpart to the name as the two go well together. We looked at other logos on the internet to get some ideas for our own logo.

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 organization of staff, the production itself, post production, distribution, and marketing. Production companies are often either owned or under contract with a media conglomerate, film studio, entertainment company, or Motion Picture Company, who act as the production company’s partner or parent company.

We have decided that the most suitable production company for our film would be a low budget company. Because of this we have chosen Film4 this is because it supports low budget cost productions like ours, and it is not a major production company. Also we have found out that Film4 develops and co-finances films and is known for working with the most innovative talent in the U.K, whether new or established. This also means that they would fund part of our production we will just have to raise the rest of the money from either another independent film production company; it would then become a co-production.

As the editors Dom Clarke and Roberto Pinto had the decision of what order to put the titles in, we started off with the name of the cinema company that we created to use specifically for this film opening. Next came our production company name, we decided not to put the log in the title because it wouldn't of gone with the theme we were using, following this came the names of the Editors, closely followed by the main starring cast. As we are only doing a film opening we added in extra names that would be in the full film to make the opening look as good as possible. We ended the opening with the director’s name; we got this idea from a lot of other film openings which did the same thing.

If we were going to get money from somewhere to create the full film to 'Mistaken Identity' it would be a small screen production company such as Film4, they are a small production company who mainly air films on their channel made by other production companies, they have made films such as '127 Hours', 'late night shopping' and '24 hour party people'. These films are not the most popular or well know films available, and this is why I believe they are a good choice to provide money for our film. One of the reasons why they are not as well known is because Film4 is a smaller less funded company that would not be able to afford the rights to produce a big Hollywood film.

One film that would be released similar to ours would be 'Open Water'. Based around true events, Open Water is a supremely effective horror film about a couple accidentally left behind on a deep water scuba diving trip. Shot entirely on digital with a well chosen minimalist aesthetic, the film details the chilling simplicity with which the error is made, and how, by not engaging with other people, the couple fatally compound the situation. This is a very low budget film (just as ours would be). You can tell the film has had less money spent on it in a variety of ways, firstly the camera quality is not as good as some higher budgeted films, and good cameras are very expensive. Secondly you can tell through the quality of the props. These would be better if there was more money available to improve them. Thirdly and finally the actors are not instantly recognisable, this is because the film did not have the funds to hire big name actors and actresses.

 

Evaluation Question 2

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Bradley’s character (Steven Graham) is portrayed to be the leader of the drug deal.  His boss like image is similar to that of the Godfather. Bradley is shown wearing smart clothing showing his importance, wealth and power, something which is also portrayed in the Godfather.  In the film the Godfather, the other characters around him seem intimidated by his powerful nature and presence, something which we have made obvious and incorporated in our film production. This being where Dom who plays (Danny Stevens) gets talked down to and undermined by Brad in the car scene. This therefore shows his dominance. This image we have tried to build up is the stereotypical mafia/gangsta leader role. His glasses which we have decided to include are important as we feel they add mystery and uncertainty to his character. Also the glasses hide his face and make it dark, like in the Godfather he is mostly seen in a dark setting. This could therefore put the viewer on edge. Bradley is also shown as important because he is driving the car, this therefore leaves Dom to do the drug deal, consequently this will keep Bradley out of trouble so he will not be blamed. The Godfather also has people working for him, so he is shown to be powerful because he does not do all his work, like Bradley he also makes Dom do the drug deal. As a result we believe that the role of the Godfather is very similar to the role Bradley plays in our film, so thought these two best matched.        

Evaluation Question 1

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)

This is the nine frame grab we have produced from our final product. These 9 frames are important to our film and the scenes tell the basic story briefly. Our product challenges the conventions of real media products in many ways. First of all we use titles, we have listed these in a certain order based on our research, which can be recognisable from movies and making our production more professional and presentable. important

The name of our film is 'Mistaken Identity', this is a well thought of name because of the fact that they mistake innocent John Peters as a criminal, who is interrupting their drug deal. Also it works well as they swap packages with their names on, the title pops up just as this happens as if they swap identities at that point.

We introduce the name of the film later on in the film opening and not right at the beginning this is commonly used by films, we have made sure the title appears at the vital part of the story line, where also the intense music is at its climax. We have tried to only include vital scenes so it is not boring to watch, but everything is important. We end the film opening on a dramatic scene, this makes the audience on-edge and wanting to watch more. It is also somewhat of a cliff hanger, this also makes the audience want to find out what is going to happen next. It introduces the characters well by the way they act and speak, introducing characters is important in a film opening and we have seen this used in many of the ones we have analysed, so we felt it was important. By the way John speaks in our film we can tell how he is innocent and normal person, something we wanted to portray. Danny seems mysterious and an edgy character when talking on the phone, this portrays the image of uncertainties we wanted to put across. Steven is seen as a big powerful character, this is shown by his clothing and his demands. Goodwin's theory applied to action movies, the link between the music and the visual is complimentary. Less of a narrative and more of implications our video has clear action like visuals, with clear and edgy font for the titles as shown in the first screen in the 9 frame. As the music makes loud bangs the titles changes as the beat building up the titles and action that they may well expect.

Music playing throughout sets the genre for our film with the upbeat loud sounds, building up suspense, establishing the genre early for a film is important and allows the audience to tell the genre before the film begins, we thought the genre was very important to put across and make as clear as possible.

The camera action used is those properly used in a usual film opening, swapping from many different types of shots, keeping it enjoyable to watch and keeping it fast and upbeat with the intense music.

The close-ups and match on actions, make the scenes short and snappy and reveal close details we wanted to put across, e.g. the phone in the office. The type of phone shows its setting and allows the viewer to put together what they think is happening. The close-up in the 8th frame is one of our preferred shots, we think this is a scary and an image of the balaclava is a representative of the criminal image.

All of these come under the codes and conventions of a film opening, the clothing is symbolic of the characters we want to put across, the suits, representing office wear. The dark clothing representing the criminality. This is important as it allows the audience to determine to image of the character we want them too.

 

 

 

9 Frame For Our Film Opening

We have put together a 9 frame image using various snapshots of the film opening that we find important to the story line. These 9 frames show you briefly what happens throughout the film opening and give you a real insight as to what genre of movie it is through the costumes and props. This is what we set out to achieve before filming as genre was a key focus.

Final Film Complete

After going over it as a group and making minor adjustments from taking advice by our teacher, we have came up with the final product. We feel it is a real reflection of our hard work and dedication to research and planning over the past weeks. We were disappointed we could not include some of the shots we filmed as it was too long when putting it all together. But we have made the best out of the situation and kept all of the vital shots we needed. We have used the titles running through the whole film opening to give it more of a professional film look. The intense music builds up to the important pieces in the production as you will see. We are not overly happy with the quality of the film, as they are a reflection of the cameras lended by school, but none the less we are overall please with the final product and feel that it has grasp the key features of the genre we were aiming for. We have published it on Youtube to gain feedback and response from the public.

My Thoughts On The Equipment and Technology

During the process of our media course, we have had to use specific equipment to enable us to complete our practical tasks. Throughout the course we have only had access to basic school equipment, such as; cameras and editing software. We have therefore been limited to an extent as to what we can do to make our film opening look as good and as professional as possible. However, I feel our skills with the software and equipment has been great and consequently has enabled us to complete the production (which we had planned) to the best of our abilities. Also, everything has been running smoothly, such as the editing software (Adobe Premier Pro) and the production equipment (cameras and tripods) as a result of this we have not faced any major problems. We have also used YouTube to enable us to put our production tasks on there to gain us some feedback. Overall the equipment has been good, and it has enabled us to complete what we wanted to do to the best of our abilities.

 This is Adobe Premier Pro (our editing software)












This is a Canon Legria FS200 (our camera)











 This is the basic tripod we used.








This is our YouTube channel which we posted our videos on.

AS Film Opening - Editing

This is a print screen of Adobe Premiere Pro, the software we will be using to edit our film opening. We are editing it currently as we are satisfied we have all of the footage we need. We labelled each video accurately so we know precisely what order to put them in. We have added a lot more titles so it looks more as a film rather than just a film opening, giving it a more professional look. We are finding editing easy to use as we have now got used to the software from last year and previously with our music video, this is proven helpful and is making the editing process a lot quicker as we know what we are doing.

Filming Complete

We have completed all of our production filming today, everything ran smoothly and we worked really well as a group. We feel that we have captured more than enough shot's to be able to edit our film and not to have to re- film again. This will consequently save a lot of time. Due to the research and planning we have done it has enabled us to get all of our filming complete promptly and smoothly and as a result has minimised the amount of errors.
Here are a few snapshots of our filming which we completed today:



Dom taking a phonecall.

 Kidnap














Package mix up discussion

Filming

Today we plan on going out to film, we have spent a long while in preparation to make sure everything goes to plan. We have a schedule to follow which should keep the day organised. We plan on filming every seen today as all locations are local and this is one of the only days we are all available. We are filming during lesson time and then after school  to use the natural dark lighting for kidnap to use the stereotypical dark eerie settings for bad  events, this is symbolic.

Filming Production Schedule

We plan on filming tomorrow during lesson time and will meet at school.
This is the plan we will follow throughout the day, this will save time and keep everything organised.
We plan on filming everything in one day as most of the scenes are around the same local area and are easy to get to.

Locations:
- Office shot in School classroom; 9am -10:30am
- Car scene near business; 12am - 1:30pm
- Kidnap scene; 7:30pm  - 8:30pm

Props:
- Office; phones, parcels, drugs
- Car scene; Car, bag, balaclava’s, gun
 - Kidnap; Balaclavas, car, parcel, bag

 Costume:

- Office; work clothes, shirt, tie coat, bag
- Car Scene; suit, sunglasses
- Kidnap; Balaclavas, dark clothes, jackets

 Actors/ Actresses:

- Office; Dom as Danny Stevens, Adam as John Peters, Roberto as Mail Boy
- Car Scene; Dom as Danny Stevens, Brad as Steve Graham
- Kidnap; Dom as Danny Stevens, Brad as Steve Graham, Adam as John Peters

Equipment:

Camera, Tripod

 Time frame for filming:

1 day

Time frame for editing:

 3 days

Analysing Films - Vantage Point

In this trailer we can see how the camera flicks into different points of view showing you the whole wider picture, and the main characters in the film. It introduces by opening with an establishing wide shot setting the scene to allow the viewer to see, what’s roughly going on and where. The lighting seems to be quite bright this is maybe to allow you to see it is a happy environment and a good event is taking place. It then introduces you to the characters which seem to be the bodyguards which give you the impression something bad is going to happen as their role is to protect against bad people; it focuses on them a lot and their suspicious looking faces. We then get to see faces of some members of the public seeing their faces we can establish for ourselves what we make of them and how we label them before we actually understand what’s going on. Suddenly the president gets penetrated into the chest and we realise he has been shot  as he collapses slowly to the ground. We don't know where the bullet comes from. This adds mystery and suspense this huge impact of what has happened keeps viewers on edge for what is going to take place next. The whole of this is very fast paced and quick snappy shots, exactly what we would like to include in our film opening as it seems to be a recurring theme in all action movies so we see it as an important feature we should most definitely incorporate whilst filming. The use of guns and violence also again occurs, another stereotypical symbol in an action movie. The music playing over the top of the video is very intense as it has a slow but built up beat, makes it feel as though it is leading to something big. Overall this film will make the viewer stay interested because of the action what goes on in the film.

Analysing Films - 2Fast 2Furious Opening Scene

2 Fast 2 Furious is a 2003 American street racing action film directed by John Singleton. It is the second film in The Fast and the Furious film franchise.  In 2 Fast 2 Furious, ex-cop Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) teams up with his ex-con friend Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) and works with undercover U.S. Customs agent Monica Fuentes (Eva Mendes) to bring Miami-based drug lord Carter Verone (Cole Hauser) down. In this clip above, it shows the first scene of the film, where Bryan gets called out to street race. This film is filled with action packed moments which excites the viewer massively. These films are incredibly exciting and fascinating. The sound which is in this clip is mainly the cars engines; this truly adds to the effect of racing and makes the viewer feel there. Also in the back ground you can hear music which builds it up to have a dramatic finish, and it does. There are many different camera angles in this clip such as close ups, which show the viewer exactly what is happening, there is match on action, when the drivers change gear and use the pedals. There are also extremely good two shots, showing two cars or two drivers which builds up the tension for the viewer. Also establishing wide shots, to show the viewer what is happening in one big picture. Finally the editing in this film and in this clip is brilliant. It really does enable the viewer to believe there in the races to because how realistic they make it. The editing when they use NOS (Nitrous oxide gas) is good because it shows that it speeds up the car even more and this is emphasized by things outside the car going past really quick and also by the drivers being pulled back. Overall this film is great because it will keep the viewer interested due to the quick action of the races and also by the great narrative.       

Analysing Films - Insidious

Insidious is a 2011 independent American psychological horror film. Written by Leigh Whannell and directed by James Wan, the film featured Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye, and Barbara Hershey in starring roles. The story centers on a couple whose son inexplicably enters a comatose state and becomes a vessel for ghosts/ demons in an astral dimension. Insidious was a very successful horror movie.
The characters in insidious make the movie very scary, this is because they make it seem real, they make the viewer on edge because they are terrified of what’s haunting their son. The old women (Lin Shaye) who tries to help their son because she’s seen it before, defiantly adds the scare factor to this film, this is because she is weird in the way she works, she evidently adds to the horror genre. Also the demons that play in this film, are terrifying, some horror films like ‘Paranormal Activity’ don’t show who the ghosts and demons are, but Insidious does which makes it even more terrifying.
The sound in this horror film also makes it scary and mysterious to the viewer; sound can play a massive part in horror movies and does in Insidious. The creepy soundtrack’s build up suspense and make the viewer think something bad is going to happen. Also when the sound goes from quite to very loud instantly (for example the shout on the baby monitor) it would make the viewer jump. The diegetic sound (speech) in this film is very intriguing and frightening, when there is speech from the demons it is very scary, and also when the adults and doctors are talking it’s also frightening because they don’t know what is up with the boy. Jump scares are a typical horror film convention in ones which are psychologically scary. The lighting most defiantly plays a part in making a horror film scary. In insidious the dark scenes often make the viewer think something bad is going to happen, and because of the dark it can be unpredictable. Also when it is daylight in horror films the viewer almost feels safe, however in Insidious some of the scary and mysterious scenes happen in the light, this is good because the viewer would not be expecting it.
Overall, Insidious is a very scary and very fun haunted house thrill ride. It depends on characters, atmosphere and sneaky happenings. It has been labeled as the “Most Terrifying Film since The Exorcist", and the Exorcist was one of the most terrifying film’s of its time (1973).

What makes an action movie or any other captivating to you?

After asking our class what makes an action movie or any other movie captivating to them, we got these certain words in response. We have made them into a wordle to be presented in a more interesting way. Asking our class benefits us as they are at the particular age of our target audience so we know our research will be solid and reliable.

Action Genre - Film Distrubution Company

This company could be a possible choice that would fit our genre and would be the best option to distribute our film.

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. (CPII) is an American film production and distribution studio. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film studios in the world, a member of the so-called Big Six. It was one of the so-called Little Three among the eight major film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age.

The studio, founded in 1918 as Cohn-Brandt-Cohn Film Sales by brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and Joe Brandt, released its first feature film in August 1922. It adopted the Columbia Pictures name in 1924 and went public two years later. The name is derived from "Columbia", a national personification of the United States, which is used as the company's logo.

In its early years a minor player in Hollywood, Columbia began to grow in the late 1920s, spurred by a successful association with director Frank Capra.

Here are a list of films that Columbia production company have distributed over this year alone. they have distributed almost thousands of films over the years starting in 1930.

Analysing Films - Watchmen Opening Scene

This is the opening scene for the film Watchmen. It is a typical action film and involves many typical and stereotypical themes you may find in many action movies. One of these is the lighting it is filmed in a dark light this creates mystery and suspense; we will try and include this in our production. There is also a main fight scene including a gun, which is a very important prop this shows crime and action as well as violence all which are usually included in action films. We plan to use both fights and guns in our film. The fight adds drama and tension to the viewer as they want to know what is going to be the final outcome. Also they add good editing into this opening; they show slow-motion shots in order to show the viewer slowly what is happening. They did this a few times, but the one which is most similar and which relates to our production is the punch in slow-motion, this is because we have incorporated this into our interrogation scene. Also the sound they use over this fight scene is not one which you would expect, this is because it is slow and calm, but it is brilliant because it fits in perfectly. The different shots are snappy and quick making the pace fast and intense this makes it on-edge for the viewer and keeps them wanting to watch, rather than it dragging out slowly which is not very entertaining and would not match the action for this genre. We will try to incorporate this into our film opening.