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

Looking back at the Preliminary task there were are five aspects that I feel I have improved upon when creating my final product. These are as follows:

1) I knew that editing was not my strong point, I felt as if I would make many mistakes when editing as there are so many different functions on the software. When creating my preliminary task I found that there are many different functions and controlls that a editing software includes. Throughout the project I gained experience as students in my group had a better understanding of the software then I did, they gave me help and advice that would boost my skills within the Adobe editing software. This helped me a lot with my editing for my preliminary task as it showed me how to use differnt effects that made the outcome of my main task a lot stronger then my prliminary.

2) Something that I really focused on in our Preliminary task was continuity; I thought that this was a crucial part of creating a film that showed not only Match on Action but also the continuity of props and costume.We made sure we didn’t make any continuity mistakes by checking our footage after it was captured, was also tried to leave the objects surrounding us in a constant place. This made it harder for us to film as in the following shots the props would have been moved by the actor. We also avoided continuity issues by making sure, if we had found any mistakes we would have had to record it again and get the characters back to script and position, by recording it twice we knew that one of the clips would have been appropriate for our film. With our first task that we filmed, we was filming in a small office that had a lot of objects scattered over the room, if we had moved or replaced any of the objects around us then this would have made continuity obvious to the audience. Our organisation became more adamant and we were more aware in spotting faults in our footage, overall our continuity wasn't bad as it followed match on action and was clear of what the story is telling you. In our preliminary task during the edit, we became more aware that there were some continuity issues with match on action as we found this out when looking back at our footage. When the actor is in the wide shot and he sits down where we cut to a close up the action didnt match because the props in the background have been moved so the shot looks less clear of the location. There were also issues with a lack of continuity with props and costumes as actors did not always bring the correct costume suitable for the shot taken, to resolve this we re-shot sections of our footage. When it came to making my main task I was aware of the importance of continuity so I took notes of what the character was wearing and where certain proprs were placed in the shot. To ensure match on action I reffered back to my notes to make sure all actors and props were suitable for the shot being taken.

3) The framing of our shots for our prelkiminary task couyld have been better. We acheived this in our main task by thinking carefully about the appropriate head height by using the rule of thirds and by making sure our shots replicate specific shot sizes eg medium shot, close up and extreme close up. We also ensured the tripod was level by using spirit level on the tripod. From using this specific rules and disciplines in my main task it became evident that there was a clear improvement in our overal look of my film work as the shots used were more appropriate and the shot sizes and angles used were more clear and visually of a higher standard.

4) We looked back at our preliminary task and aspects of the film and sound levels were out of place, I now know how to adjust the sound levels by using Adobe Premiere Pro editing software to make the level of objects being dropped or placed less loud. I noticed that when we placed an object on a table the sound was very loud and you could hear it over the character talking, we would prevent this by adjusting the volume for that certain clip and would do this throughout the film to make sure all sound levels are appropriate for the clip.

5) A lack of shots were used, This was due to creating a very basic shot list, the shots we used most were medium close ups and wide shots to capture everything. This lack of shot sizes made editing harder due to the lack of shot choice. It also made the film less interesting as no emphasis was created through close up shots. To learn from this mistake before we filmed our main task we created a very formal shot lift ensuring appropriate shot sizes were used throughout. When we recorded our final piece we made a shot list to help us prevent mistakes and to mix the film up a little, if a film uses a low variety of shots then the intensity will be low and the audience will be bored. We should have also used reverse shots when the character being interviewed is being asked questions, rather than the interviewer being shown when being asked a question, s the actress who is talking or asking a question should always be viewed first to make the story clearer.

Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Technology is growing and developing fast and has done for several years, new camera’s and software is being produced and is making film’s more detailed and graphically outstanding. We used a wide variety of technology and products so below I have created a mood board of the key technologies that we have used as a group throughout the project to create our final clip. I have learnt a lot over the past months of filming our project of how technology has a massive influence on the production of the final outcome of the film. Another huge factor to the film is camera quality, many cameras today vary in pixels but distributors have a huge budget so can afford the best technology out there, as us being teenagers we cannot afford high budget materials and products.

Throughout the project I learnt a lot off features that I would need for future references, for example I did not know how to figure out how to adjust a tripod but after being shown by the members in my group it quickly come natural and this was very helpful. Throughout filming there have been many techniques that have helped me record especially as a group, the people who were in my group had a bit more experience then me but they showed me how to use the equipment and I quickly found myself enjoying and progressing quickly.

 Sony Handy cam Camcorder

This was the main technology that we used to create our media project, between our group we all shared the camera individually and all took separate turns to control the camera, this gave everyone a chance to show their skills towards filming. There are many different buttons on the camera, there is a fast forward, rewind, stop, play, pause, delete, zoom in and out button, these all have different functions but throughout the project I got more confident in my ability to use the camera. Although this camera is low budget and not to a high standard to create broadcast images it was appropriate technology for us to learn on and create a film to a reasonable standard.

Flip video camera

When working on our project, we needed to interview our focus group in order to recieve feedback, this is due to its simplicity. The camera has minimimal functions so operating is quick and easy. For example there is no zoom on the lens and there is no ability to select focus. The primary function of this peice of technology is to allow, through the use of its USB connector, a simple quick method of uploading items shot, straight onto a computer. This was a quick and simple process of recording and uploading. This camera is just like a Camcorder but has no screen to watch back the footage, this is also very easy to upload footage as it has a simple USB device that would slot into a computer where you can then upload the chosen footage.

You Tube

YouTube was Key in production and blogging elements of the project. When blogging I referred back to YouTube every time as I needed to find opening sequences to analyse for the blogger posts. I could have done this using “Vimeo player” online but YouTube is the biggest and easiest online video site. We also used YouTube to upload all of our footage from our project. We uploaded both of our tasks onto YouTube as this is what we needed to do to complete our project. YouTube has been a very helpful resource to not only look at proffesional examples of opening title sequences but also to research titles done by other AS media students.

Blogger
This is the website that I have used throughout my project to upload vital information that helped me with my film. I documented all of my work and research on this website so other people can have a look at how I have progressed with my work. I found it quite easy to use although it's not compatible on a lot of computers which meant that some time was wasted trying to get the work up.

Adobe premiere

This is the software we used to edit our project together. When we had finished filming all of our clips we then moved onto the theory side of things are started uploading our clips onto the computer using a USB to connect up the camera. When the footage was uploaded we then needed to put it all together, this is a massive part of success for big distributors as the editing is a key part of the film, film companies such as Columbia, 20^th century Fox, Warner Brothers, and popular production companies would pay a large amount of their budget towards the editing of the film to make it look dramatic and intensifying, a good editing software can almost increase the power of the film. There are software’s out there that can cost thousands of pounds as there is so many different adjustments you can make to add crucial effects to the film.

Google

Google was the main search engine we used when carrying out research towards film production companies and this is where we got all of our information from. Google is the largest ever worldwide search engine used all over the world; it can give information to a great amount of searches. This technology was crucial towards our overall outcome of this project as it helped us decide what was most suitable for our project; I used this search engine to look at forums of what would have been most appropriate and best for our film. I used this search engine as I knew it’s reliable, fast and always gives me productive research. Acess to Google has enabled me to access information from all over the world which prior to 1996, the advert of Google, simply wouldn't have been as available to me.

What I have learnt throughout my project
When I first started Media in year 12 I didn't have a lot of past experience with filming, camera's and media in general, over the past few months I have been taught and trained how to use the equipment that is needed to make a film. At the start of the year I found myself struggling how to use the equipment which was necessary for the task ahead of me. The students in my group have had experience with media equipment and have completed a variety of shots in the past as they have performed media for GCSE. This was very helpful towards my learning as they gave me a good understanding of what I needed to do and they would tell me how to use equipment.

When using technology there was elements that I needed understand and how to use the technology provided and making decisions easier as we knew the best method to create a desired outcome which was a continually evolving process for me. It was through consistent use, support and experimentation  that I came to feel confident with using so many different mediums that I also came to understand which peice of technology to select for a particular task. For example whether to use a flip camera or a camcorder. When using suitable technology in our group before making and producing our film we carried out research within our group to find out what was the most stuiable technology to use for a task, in our group we all agreed with each other and if there was any doubts then we would back track and find a new peice of technology to use.

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

Through watching our final opening sequence, there are many shots that have a unique selling point to attract the audience to our film. The first thing I thought of was by screen grabbing a shot of the main character agent Carlson on the right, this automatically tells the audience that a middle aged male is involved and getting ready for work, I used this screen grab as in most action/thriller films an attractive middle aged Male would be used to attract the female market. Stereotypically the character of a film of this genre is sporty, athletic male. This shot also reveals agent Carlson's character. A attractive middle aged man attracts both male and female audiences. Females can be attracted through physical attraction and males through action. He is an intelligent person as he is wearing glasses, a shirt that make him look very presentable, and is getting ready in a mirror in an apartment that is his, this hints to the audience he is wealthy, and is getting ready to go somewhere.

I also picked up on something else that could be considered a unique selling point, here is another screen shot of Carlson looking at a picture of his daughter, the angle of the shot shows his daughter clearly, this could be a unique selling point as the audience would be lead into thinking something is going to happen to agent Carlson’s daughter as there would be a reason for the picture being viewed in a close up shot, this will create an intense feel to the audience as the picture is of a sweet, young girl who means a lot to the character .

The clip I found most interesting was the split shot, this would address the audience by comparing Carlson and the Terrorists together by having each character in a split shot, and this is very effective as it builds drama and panic towards the audience as they know something is going to happen. We used a split shot of Carlson tying up his shoe laces on his black polished work shoes, whilst the terrorist ties up the laces on his steel toe cap boots, we did this to make the audience wait and see what it going to happen next.

To gain the audiences’ feedback I gave out a number of questionaires to target audiences that i thought were suitable to watch our film, I handed out questionaires to males over 15 and females above 18. Doing this gave me clear results and gave me an indication of what needed improving and how we could refer back to our draft and see if we could adjust the editing in any way.When we came to doing our audience feedback we chose to pick 4 17 to 18 year old males (our primary demographic) and one 18 year old girl who we were interested on her reaction from the film because she wasn't the target audience. They all seemed to overall enjoy the opening, including the girl and came across as though they would go to the cinema or buy the DVD to watch again to show friends or family.

 The questionnaire was a success and most of the results come back positive, we also recorded a group of student’s thoughts and opinions on the film to get an idea of what they liked about it and how they could help us improve on it. The feedback recieved gave us some great idea's on what needed imrpoving or what could be included to make our film more of a success. The improvement given in our feedback was that the music should be used to accompany the dramatic scenes in order to help build suspense.

We researched an appropriate age rating for our film by going to the BBFC website. Our target audience would be certificate 15. This is because our primary demographic of 16 to 25 year olds would be more drawn to it as its not too light or heavy on adult content. However we could drop it down to a 12a rating to gain a larger market audience as it will be open to more people to view. This could change vastly as we could create the film again using more adult content that would rise the rating up to a 18 but this would restrict the audience. Over all I have researched the BBFC and have seen what is needed to create a 18+ film and a 12a film, overal i think that the most suitable rating for Dispatch would be a 15.

I have researched the BBFC wedbsite to choose a age rating that is most suitable for our short film. This helped me to choose the most reasonable age rating for my groups short film as I was not sure on how guns and terrorists would be rated by the BBFC. When researching I included all elements from our short film that I thought would be censored by my target audience. On the wedbite there was a very helpful link that showed me all the guidlines that would help me rate my film, this showed me what was most censored from top to bottom of a list of the worst and least harmful to viewers.

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our target audience would be Male teenagers and middle aged adults, between the ages of 18-35. This would be the most suitable age and gender for our audience as females are not into action films for example “Mission Impossible” and James Bond films usually more male dominated as a target audience. Males are into high action dramas and therefore like manly objects like guns, knives, and explosives as it interests them. To find the film more intense and dramatic then you must put yourself in agent Carlson’s kind of perspective and see yourself in his shoes and what’s going through his head, you must have a sense of naivety to your character. The distribution company would put a middle aged rating (15) on our film as it involves a kidnapping, terrorists are also armed with guns that are on display. We want our clip to appeal to younger age teenagers as we could make more clips and make the storyline of the film develop; we want to give the viewers an experience where they want to know what happens next and to find out if Carlson saves his daughter.

There are many key features that will attract an audience, one of which is the characters and actresses taking part in the film. For example films with Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, James Franco, Johnny Depp and Will Smith who have all featured in some great films that have had a great effect on the audience and target market. The kind of people we want to view our film would be people who are interested in drama and want to get involved with action and drama who enjoy spending time with other who can easily make convosation. If the audience connects with a character in the film it can bring emotion towards the viewer and have a great reaction towards the audience, another key attention towards our audience would be Carlson himself as if he is attractive and sexy then this will attract more females producing more income for our film if we was going to take it to the market.

The member that I think would be most suitable to watch our film would be a man between the age of 20-30 who has a home of his own who has just moved out. I think that this target audience would be most suitable as middle aged men dont have many interests and they enjoy watching films on TV at that age. The male would have a basic office job that consists of filing work, the job would be minimum wage as having more money then this would distract him from watching any TV.

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

Looking back at the films that had influenced our production of the opening sequence, films such as “Casino Royale”, “Quantum of Solace”, “Scarface” and “Golden Eye”, most of these films are very successful especially the James Bond films as they are a massive hit and it shows on the Internet Movie Data base (IMBd). On this site it shows statistics of hwo succesful these films were, it shows the viewer how much were sold and how much money the film made. These films used a very high budget as I have found this out on the IMBd site as it showed me all the statistics needed; obviously we are school students and do not have a great amount of funds from the school or ourselves. It is a risk producing a low budget film as it will potentially have less exposure to its target market due to a small budget for publicity. However, with the advent of social meda there is greater flexibility to the target audience, with a low budgeted film it means that its risk is that will it make its money back by viewing at cinemas.

A production company is responsible for the development and filming of a specific production or media broadcast. In entertainment, the production process begins with the development of a specific project. Once a final script has been produced by the screenwriters, the production enters into the pre-production phase; most productions never reach this phase for financing or talent reasons. In pre-production, the actors are signed on and prepared for their roles, crew is signed on, shooting locations are found, sets are built or acquired, and the proper shooting permits are acquired for on location shooting. Actors and crew are hand-picked by the producer, director, and casting director, who often use collaborators or referenced personnel to prevent untrusted or unwelcome people from gaining access to a specific production and compromising the entire production through leaks. Once a production enters into principal photography, it begins filming.

Distribution focuses on the marketing and promotion aspect of the film, for example a distributor will have forums online for what the audience want to see next and will make a viral online discussion forum so the production company and distributor can come together, they will then use the information from the Internet and from the audience they have created and this will give them ideas on what the audience want to see next. “Scarface” was a huge release in 1983 being released by a film production company named “universal pictures” who have also released many popular films for example “Shaun of the Dead”, “Johnny English” and “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason”, these films are all very successful. To have a good film production company then Actresses of a higher level would be used, this is because they wouldn’t except a contract to work with a lower class film production company as they know that the budget will be cheap and the film that would be produced wouldn’t be more of a release success rather than being produced by “Universal pictures”, “Columbia pictures”, and “Eon production”.

I have researched many films from the thriller and action genre and it clearly shows that the best film production company for our chosen genre would be “Columbia pictures” as they had produced many of the James Bond films and this would suit out clip well. By choosing the most suitable film production company it will help the release of your film, by selecting the wrong company then the genre of the film can be unclear as some production companies are experienced with working on genre’s such as Horror, adventure, or fantasy, this type of production company would have not been suitable for our clip. I have decided to choose a American film distributor as I have researched American distributors and the income they have recieved has been a lot larger then any English film production campanies.

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We have come up with the idea of focusing our media product at males aged from fifteen to fourty years; we thought that this was suitable for our project as we had based the story line on a M16 agent named Carlson and three terrorists trying to kidnap agent Carlson’s daughter. Carlson is a smart looking character but also has a good sense of humour. We show that Carlson is a normal type of guy as he has his shirt un-tucked throughout the film and also wears glasses. Throughout the opening seqeunces Carlson is calm and keeps good composure. Carlson is the main character of our film and is targeted at middle aged people as this is the type of character that Carlson would be seen by the public audience, this is because Carlson has a daughter and also lives in a house of his own. In the film Carlson is a genuine guy getting ready for work, this indicates that he is of an older generation as he has a full time job and is prepared to get ready for work.

 

To compare the characters in our opening sequence I have selected AL Pacino from  the film 'Scarface' and James Bond from one of his films 'Casino Royale'.

I chose ‘Scarface’ as a comparable film to our opening sequence not only because it’s action and thriller but because AL Pacino is comparable to agent Carlson although slightly less voilent. When looking at the screen grabs from Scarface you can see that the main character Al Pacino is suited and looks like a secret agent. We also thought between out group that Al Pacino from Scarface would suit our film very well as we scripted Carlson as a middle aged man who works for M16.

We also looked at many of the Bond films but Casino Royale being the most appropriate to help us choose what our main character was going to look like, we agreed that James Bond would be great for our film as he is an agent for 007 and tests out new equipment. Looking at the James bond films it also gave us an idea of what would need to be expected from a secret agent, we didn’t really have an idea of what education and style a secret agent would have. By watching these examples for our chosen character it made us think about Carlson and how he has become an agent for M16 and what his life was like.

When researching what our terrorist would need to look like a few example images gave us a idea of what size and build our actor would need to be, I also researched the most common type of terrorist as I needed to see visually what a terrorist would need to include on what they are wearing. I also needed to take a note of how much facial hair they have and if they would wear anything on there head, for example balaclavas are usually used to keep the identity of the terrorist to a minimal. When carrying out research we all agreed which would be the most appropriate clothing for our terrorist actor. We did not want to go over the top by giving the terrorist to much dramatic features that are visible. For example the features that we could have included to make the film look more realistic such as facial hair as when researching we found statistics that told us that 1 out of 4 terrorists would have had facial hair. We did not desuise our character to look like a foreign terrorist as we did not want to take it that far, we made the actor look very simple by using dark clothing, steel toe cap boots and a balaclava. The clothing used was suitable for what we were trying to ahceive as the actors looked intimidating and this is what we were trying to acheive.

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

The way our film uses sounds and different shots camparing agent Carlson to the terrorist builds up suspense in the open sequence, this makes it come across as a Action/Adventure product in which we were trying to create for the audience.

Our opening sequence uses a vast amount of action and adventure conventions, for example the structure we have used is very snappy, we have fitted all of our shots close together and included action and/or dialogue continuously throughout to gain high intensity for the audience. We looked at many examples of opening sequences to get an idea of what Action and Adventure film openings would include such as the titles, credits and effects used to create the genre of the film. The style which we used to present our credits and titles was very clear and simple to make sure the viewer could easily read the titles and text displayed on screen. We got some great ideas by watching examples of opening sequences and how we would include credits. We watched Snatch and many James Bond films to get an idea of mise en scene, editing and sound.

When creeating the opening sequence of our film we didn't have much of a idea of how a film developed, for example the timings of when credits and text is displayed on screen. To understand this more easily we planned out a timeline with a two minute boundary. The film I chose to base my timeline on was 'Scarface' as I know that this uses a lot of titles at the start of the film and music also helps create suspsicion and suspense. This gave our group more of a idea when titles and sound needed to be included as we have compared our timings to a high standard film that's succesful, this will make our overal film better.

I believe that the structure of our opening sequence is that of a conventional action/thriller film. It firstly establishes the scene by using establishing shots, before introducing any of the characters and credits. Our sequence and structure for the film was to introduce Carlson early on in the film and try to relate agent Carlson to the terrorists, we used split screen shots of what both the terrorists and Carlson was doing. We used fade in and out to create smooth transitions, a common convention in opneing sequences. However, we did decide to challenge one of the conventions which was to have the credits at the start of the film so that they appeared over the relevant characters. We did this in order to make the sequence more logical.

The style and colour of our font was very basic, we wanted it to be seen as a thriller/action film and didn’t want any bright vivid colours to distract the audience from what’s going to happen, this would have worked very well for our film because, they cannote happiness instead of serious and down to business. We all gave ideas and opinions towards what font and colour was going to be used, we agreed that having a font that’s easy to read masculine and bold. We chose for the font to be in white, one reason for this was because it made the credits stand out over the top of the clip; where the clip was either in dark colouring or black and white. This font was applicable to creating the horror genre, mainly because if it were a more curvy and comedic font, the serious and eerie tone we aimed to achieve would be distracted from. 

The genre chosen was Thriller/Action. This genre suited our group as it we are all males who areted in adventure. We did some formal research online to find out how the tension and drama was built up to make sure the audience know the genre of the film, we found out that sound is a key feature when creating an Action genre. The setting and location of our film was not as important, we used a friend’s house as we are students and do not have a limited budget towards our clip. The type of genre is also created through simplistic elements with the age of the actor being the same as the target audience.

The main element of enigma is through the mystery of what’s going to happen to agent Carlson’s daughter. We build up tension by showing agent Carlson look at a photo of his daughter, then cut to a shot of the terrorists getting ready to go on a mission to kidnap agent Carlson’s daughter. We used enigma well and we used different shots to create this effect, for example agent Carlson is getting ready for work doing up his tie, whilst the terrorists are arranging balaclavas and guns.