1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our final production defiantly challenges the forms and conventions used in gangster/thriller. The conventions of our production allow the audience to have a social connection between two distinct groups. There is the hero (the person whom is running) and the mob gang (who are chasing him). This allows the audience to choose who they decide to have a social interaction with. Most films of this genre aim for ages 18-25 however ours challenges this because our production is more aimed at 15 – 25 so we have a wider range of audience.
We have also considered the conventional roles of the hero and villain. In our production the hero is killed so this is different from conventional roles as the hero usually tries to save the day and succeeds, however in our production the villains win, (to the certain extent that is seen in the opening).
The setting and location that we used fits very well with our genre as most of the filming apart from the establishing shot is shown all through pathways, alleys and roads. This type of style of just the running is shown in the beginning of trainspotting. In our production there is also a lot of straight cut editing and this is also shown in Trainspotting.
When choosing the costumes we wanted to make it clear that there was a distinction between the two types of people and in most gangster films the villains wear suits or smart clothing, for example the film snatch, there is a clear difference. With the hero, we decided to go on a smart/ casual look as smart trousers were worn with a casual top and plimsolls. The mise en scène was used to create a kind of ‘rough’ look but with someone that has a sort of significance throughout the film, which is found out and the end of the production.
The tittles that we used were chosen to create a ‘block’ typed theme as we wasn’t able to go for the types of tittles we hoped for, such as a digital clock look. The writing was chosen red to enhance the blood of the genre and black and red are usually associated with ‘bad things’ within many stereotypes.
When the opening begins and the characters are seen on screen they both have two very different suggestions about one another. For example Ryan (the Hero) comes across as athletic as he does a few stunts and he is able to run for a sustained amount of time until he is chased into a dead end. The villains however come across as angered and motivated to kill him as from the start they are looking very distinctly for this certain person.
When we were looking to challenge and develop and conventions in media, looking at the trainspotting opening sequence we feel has the mopst relevance to what we are trying to achieve. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2GKVtWsXKY&feature=related here is the youtube address of how i watched the trainspotting video.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our production represents teenagers and young adults. 72 hours develops the stereotypical view of a ‘bad’ teenager as the Ryan is running away and the audience are not to sure why he is. As the establishing shot shows a shopping centre the first thought from the audience could be that ‘ he is a typical teenager’ that has stolen from a shop. This is notified as he is in casual clothes and the two guys chasing him are wearing formal/business wear. The way that the characters are dressed could also establish their social class. However once the men dressed smartly and could be associated with the upper class through the trolley and act aggressively this has changed as they are now looking more ‘rough’ and violent.
The stereotypical view of a teenager is shown in the cast of skins, as cook seems to be always the one that gets into mischief. Within the images of Cook and Ryan they both look rather innocent apart from Cook is smoking and Ryan just seems to be ‘hanging around’. However there are some differences in the way that they are dressed as Cook seems to be more casual than Ryan, so if we could re film we would probably alter Ryan’s outfit to jeans, top and ‘hoody’ so that the teenager look is more distinct. (REFER TO IMAGE 12)
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The media institution that we would probably distribute our film to is a small company such as Film 4 This is because the American industry wouldn’t be interested in our British typed film as the film is more stereotypical around British public rather than American. As our film doesn’t have a large budget film four would more likely to be interested. However I think that if film four did take on our production the film could become potentially good on profit.
Most big films in America have a big opening and a lot of advertisement, instead of doing this I think the film would be better of just being viewed among TV channels such as film four and would become potentially successful by gaining recognition like this. Trainspotting was just realised as then became a good hit by the public and wasn’t released in the cinemas as they didn’t think it would gain enough profit to do this. (REFER TO IMAGE 9)
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Gangster/ thriller genre typed films are aimed for ages around 18 – 25. This is because there is usually a lot of violence, strong language and even sexual scenes within these types of films. However our production isn’t as violent as what an 18 certification is and also doesn’t contain any sexual scenes but does include some strong language. So as an exception from the usual genre our production would probably be a 15 certification, therefore our production has more of a range of who the target population is. Also from our research that was carried out we can say that mostly males would be more interested in this type of film. However we cannot generalise these findings as not enough people were involved. If we were to take out research again we would just do a questionnaire aimed for 15 –25 year olds and would include a larger sample size so we would be able to see what else they expect within this type of genre and also what would attract them to go see the film, as these would be all things to draw in more of a public opinion as well as more of a target audience.
From the feedback that we already gained we already know that to draw peoples attraction to see this type of film including big named actors/actresses and good reviews would enable them to be interested in wanting to see the film.
The key element of our production and audience is that it is more likely to be British. This is because there are stereotypical views, language and cultualistic ideas that are included within this film so not really American audiences would be interested. However this could attract American audiences as well as other cultures around the world because it is so stereotypical. For example two weddings and a funeral is extremely British but yet became successful in America because other cultures are interested within the ways the British are. (REFER TO IMAGES 15)
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
The way that we attracted our audience mainly was by questionnaires and by word of mouth. I also used face book as an advantage as I posted a comment asking people to watch our media product ion on YouTube, as we made our own account to upload videos so if people knew about this they could easily access this and have a look (this was called InTheBinProductions). So by using the internet I was able to notify people more about what was happening and they then became interested in what the media project was all about. After filming our first rough cut we also asked volunteers around school to watch our production and give us any feedback about what they thought. Our sampling was opportunity as we were asking people that were available within the set time we were asking them. So this was a little biased as we weren’t able to include everyone’s opinion.
If we were able to do this again me and the group decided that we would mainly use the internet as this is the way that thing as are heard about and gain a quick, easy and cheap approach on gaining people’s opinions and making them aware of certain things. So to do this we would make a face book page ad suggesting all of our friends to have a look. If all of the group suggested there friends to see this page then, we think we would of gained more of insight as people would look either because they are interested or just genuinely want to be nosey. But either way people would be addressed by the production and as our film is very low budget this could work really well.
The music that was chosen can also attract the audience as someone who doesn’t usually watch this type of genre may be engaged by the music so may want to watch more. The track that was used isn’t a very popular song but fits the genre brilliantly as its upbeat, has no lyrics in and engages the audience well into the film for the opening.
At the end of the opening scene the tittles then say 72 hours earlier... we decided to put the end at the start because we thought it would engage the audience well as this style is used in many films such as The Butterfly Effect, Pulp Fiction and American Beauty and have all worked successfully.
The findings I have put into a bar chart so it is easy to show the clear distinction between males, females and the different age groups. (REFER TO IMAGE 14)
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt many things about the technologies that we have used whilst constructing the production. For example I never knew how to actually edit a piece of video footages and whilst using Adobe Premiere Pro this became simple to me after using a few times. Things such as the video effects that I learnt whilst editing Juno and enabling the continuity to be good has also been a success for me. Before I had no experience of filming or editing so I didn’t really know how to ensure that a shot had continuity. The camera’s that we were given we just hand held at first because we thought that this would give a good angle ECT, however when going back and looking at the shot on a screen we realised that the camera wasn’t still so then we decided to use the tripod which then became a big success when we filmed our final production as we used this for most of the shots that were filmed. Here is a picture of us working with the editing software, (REFER TO IMAGES 11)
As we have had to do an evaluation and updates on all the filming we have done and everything else I never used a blog before, so now I know how easy it is to use one and still has the technology rather than just writing everything down, I may consider to use a blog again if I feel I need to keep a diary of some sort for others to look at.
YouTube and Facebook has also been a big help with the production. Even though I was relatively sure about how to use YouTube and Facebook I had never used them to gain people’s opinions and feedback on something that I was able to improve from. With YouTube I and the group now have an account where we are able to upload our work to and gain feedback from the public. (REFER TO IMAGES 10)
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I feel that I now have enough knowledge to confidently film and edit something independently. At first I and the group weren’t using the equipment properly given to us as we didn’t use the microphone or the tripod as much as we should have. Now we are using the equipment that is suitable and thinking more about what we are going to film and how, where as the preliminary was just a case of what we thought of as we went along, which did delay us in the long term because when it came to editing we wasn’t able to gain continuity as we should have done.
When doing the final production a lot of preplanning went ahead first as we thought of locations, times we could film, scripts and costumes. The camera shots that was used in the final piece had more of a range as there were many close ups, establishing shots, long shots and mid shots. I realised that you also have to film as many types of the same shot as possible until you are happy with the shot; this makes it a lot easier when coming back to editing so you are able to use different parts from each shot to create a perfect shot if it has been edited properly.
Now when I am watching a film I am able to see what the mise en scene is of the shot and the importance of the costumes whereas before I would simply watch now I observe. This is simply because I can understand all of the camera shots, why they are used and what the point of it is. Mise en scene has also made me realise on how different objects, costumes and location can set the mood of how the audience feel and also how to exaggerate something or even manipulate a setting to the certain atmosphere you are trying to set.
Lighting and sound is another point that I think I understand more and have defiantly improved on since the preliminary, as you can see the wrong lighting is used in the preliminary (when tony is walking down the corridor) and the final production we filmed on a bright day so the audience we able to clearly see what was going on, however we had to delete a few shots as the sun sometimes was to bright as the faces of the characters made it hard to see, espicially when we did the first rough cut with lee). Now I realise that you have ti think more abou tthe lighitng to give the right look and atmosphere to the audience. With sound all of our final production was non diagetic, where as in the preliminary some sound was diagetic as we had to film them having a conversation, which we didnt do correctly as we didnt use the microphone so the diaglogue was quiet.
