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.

MAIN post 4a - Plot Development

DispatchGenre: Spy ThrillerTarget Audience: Our suitable audience will be Males aged 15 to 40 who enjoy thrillers and adventure such as the James Bond films and all the Bourne films.
Log line: M16 agent is getting ready for work and him and his daughter are betrayed and kidnapped; he sets out on a journey to seek redemption.Full Plot synopsis: M16 Agent Carlson is getting ready for an interrogation into a recent mission uncovering the true intent of a higher up member of MI6; agent Darwin. At the same time a squad of terrorists are getting ready to kidnap Carlson and his daughter.They get them away successfully and take them to a secure location.


Months earlier, agent Carlson was sent on a assassination mission in Iran where he was supposed to kill a high ranked target and be congratulated for his work. A misunderstanding had took place with his head agent, Darwin, without knowing agent Carlson had killed the wrong person, he found out when he arrived at home that he was going to be punished for failing the mission, although he thought he had carried out the mission successfully. This led him getting demoted to a desk job.


Whilst the terrorists start spreading the message that they have captured agent Carlson and his daughter the M16 agent starts planning his escape route, the terrorists then realise that they have been double crossed by not being paid for kidnapping Carlson so that he couldn't get to the interrogation.This makes the terrorists feel a vendetta towards the agent that hired them, Darwin. Instead of keeping Carlson in their captivity they choose to get onto MI6 and get a ransom for agent Carlson. Carlson escapes and frees his daughter leaving on his way to MI6.


Whilst the terrorists start coming to terms with MI6 and making negotiations they then realise that one of them has escaped leading the terrorists to panic and being mislead choosing to go after him. Carlson finds a pay phone and explains to Darwin  to meet him in a private area, Darwin agrees to meeting Carlson and him and his daughter enter the M16 headquarters, where they then rush up to the head office, knowing that Darwin is not in the building. 


Carlson arrives in the head office where he collides with a Director looking confused about why Carlson and his daughter were in such a rush. Carlson then informs him about the whole affair, telling him about his mission and the downfalls that happened in Iran, he also explained about what had just happened and also tells the director how Darwin is working against M16. After persuading the Director he finally believes him and sends out a task to find Darwin immediately.


Darwin arrives at the private location where he was supposed to be meeting Agent Carlson, he is confused that the agent isn't already at the location, shortly after this the terrorist group also arrives at the secret location where Darwin is waiting. During a confrontation the terrorists find out that it is Darwin, they then kill him for double crossing them. As the terrorists escape the task force that was set out to track down Darwin sees them escaping and manage to arrest them. 


Opening sequence outline: Early in the morning Agent Carlson is getting ready for work at his job in M16, he is feeling upset and emotional that he cant spend time with his daughter, whilst a group of freelance terrorists are getting ready to kidnap him because they have been hired to by an anonymous source. The scenes cut between each other making the intensity of the film very high, agent Carlson being a calm and lethargic character whilst the terrorists are high speed in fast motions.

Post 8: Pre-production Documentations

Risk Assessment:

 

Storyboard:

Pre-production Report:

We have come up with a idea to a target a audience of young adult males, we have chosen the genre thriller as this would be the most appropriate for our group. Before we started acting we first of all had to draft up a script, we did this plenty of times as we needed to engage with the viewers and have a strong, thrilling script to make the film more dramatic and to have a solid conclusion. We have encountered a problem and that is because our group has four young members in the cast so we will be younger then the cast presented in the script, we will do our best to avoid this by using props such as clothing, style and facility. We can adjust the quality of the actors used by the appearance of the lighting and makeup used to an extent. We as a group will try our best to solve this problem bu using cast that look older then they actually are, we will also manipulate there appearance by using props and makeup to effect there appearance.

Another thing that we struggled with whilst during out preproduction is that a lot shots are needed to complete the film. By using lots of shots this benefited us very much as if we had made any mistakes then the other angles used for the same shot would have been used. If the shots used were not appropriate for our film then this would also have also benefited us, by having a selection of shots and angles it makes it easier to decide what shot it going to be used, rather then having one angle and one shot of a clip that may not have been up to standard with the film. We have listed our shots in the shot lost and also illustrated them as well in the storyboard, we have done this so we can refer to the shot list whilst filming rather then planning everything on the spot.

MAIN Post 4 - Group Meeting

The group I was meant to be with did not have enough people and various members of our group dropped out off the course. There fore I joined another group as quickly as possible to catch up with all the work they had produced.

When I joined the group I had missed a lot of work that they had done so I needed to catch up and get filled in with what the Plot of the film where the film was based. We sat around a table of four and we discussed the plot of the film together, we all agreed with some points and all equally made decisions. When I joined the group we all come up with a genre of the film that we wanted to choose, we all agreed with the chosen genre and gave some great idea's towards what was going to be happening. We decided that a thriller featuring a MI6 agent would be the most appropriate for our group, we all agreed with the idea of this and did not exclude any opinions from members of the group.

After the genre of our film was chosen we then moved on to the plot of the film, our group gathered around a table and then started discussing what our film was going to be based on. Many idea's come up but we had to stick to our chosen genre that was 'thriller', we come up with many idea's that did not relate to the genre so we had to make it suit the pacific genre chosen. We started plotting the film by giving a few idea's each of what we thought would be a good idea to suit us and our genre. Some of the idea's that were said by our group members were un-realistic so we had to stick to a certain standard of film that did not involve any special effect e.g explosives, ghosts or effects that would be used by professional film industries. We wrote the plot of the film down on the computer and saved our work, we come up with the cast of the film, where the film was going to be based and what the film was going to be based on. A memeber in our rgoup named John thought that it would be a great idea to base the film on a MI6 agent, all of our membesrs in our group agreed with John and the plot started from there. We then got idea's from other thriller based films and got a idea of what was going to be needed to complete our film. We stuck to a simple structure then noted down where the films was going to be based, what would be needed for our film and the story line for our film.

Main Post 10: Production Report

I found that capturing our footage was quite difficult as there was many items scatted around the room that we had based our footage in, we first had to clean everything up to make our footage more professional and also to make Carlson seem like a MI6 agent. After we had tidied this up and kept focus on continuity we decided to begin filming. We gave Carlson a smart, professional look but also dressed him the way we did to show that he has his own personal problems, we did this by showing Carlson with his shirt un-tucked as he is a normal type of guy.

The main difficulty towards filming was trying to keep continuity unnoticeable, on every shot we filmed we checked over the footage to find out if any object was in a place where it shouldn’t have been. Before we started to film everything that wasn’t meant to be in the shot was moved to outside so nothing we didn’t want was in the shot. Overall the footage was clear of any continuity or objects that weren’t meant to be in the overall outcome as we checked clearly and tried our hardest to avoid any mistakes when filming.

Our filming went on for forty five minutes as we checked every shot taken to see if we could notice any distractions or irrelevant objects that had evolved in the footage. We did find many objects that were irrelevant for our footage so we moved them clear out the way, we also made many mistakes whilst filming such as the acting and characteristics wasn’t up to our standards, to avoid this we adjusted the angles of many shots and tried readjusting the camera to suit the footage. The lighting also played a big part in our footage as Hugo’s house has many windows in the rooms that we needed to use, when the lighting was too bright then we would simply change the settings on the camera. Some of our shots were to dark to use so we simply added light and adjusted our tripod and camera so the lighting would be up to standard in the shot.

MAIN Post 3a: Further look at opening sequences

Saving Private Ryan opening sequences

- Film and Production companies fade in/fade out. (2 seconds - 16 seconds)
- The name of the film fades in/fades out. ( 18 seconds - 24 seconds)
- American flag to represent the USA fades in/fades out. (26 seconds - 40 seconds)
- It then cuts in with a long shot of a old man walking with his family, this is a flashback as the start is the same as the end of the film. (41 seconds - 46 seconds)
- It then has a over should shot of the old man. (46 seconds - 50 seconds)
- After the over shoulder shot the camera moves around and shows him walking with his family at a medium close up, this shows the old mans emotions and feelings. (51 seconds - 54 seconds)
- A close up of the family is then shown after and then also has a very close up of his son taking a over shoulder shot with a camera. (54 seconds - 59 seconds)
- After a close up of his son it then has a medium close of his wife ( 1.02 seconds - 1.06 seconds)
- It then focuses on the old man and his emotions by using shots such as close ups, long shots and filming his walking has a great effect on the overall outcome. (1.07 seconds - 1.31 seconds)
- After it has focused on the old man it follows the family with a over shoulder shot so it can follow the elderly mans footsteps (1.33 seconds - 1.59 seconds)


In the opening of Saving Private Ryan I noticed that there were no titles or credits in the opening sequences, the  film and production company were included at the start but no credits were shown. The reason that there was no titles or credits is that so many people died in the war, this is also the reason why the American flag is shown at the start and end of the film as it tells us how hard the American troupes worked for there country and makes the viewers think of how lucky we are to be here today. If the film included credits at the end of the film then the viewers would have started talking and left the cinema when the credits would have been showed, other then this the American flag was shown for a long period of time for the viewers to sit down and think of memorable times of the history in each there family.