Matt - Evaluation

The project that I decided to do was the film opening sequence. I am quiet glad that I chose this as it turned out to be a very fun project. I worked with Hannah, our actor doesn’t take media but we thought he would suite the part his name was Danny. In the project I mostly did the editing, which was difficult at first but I soon got used to it and it turned out to be enjoyable, I also contributed to some of the filming although Hannah did most of that.

Qu. 1: What ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media product?

The genre of our film was a sort of hybrid utilizing conventions of teen thriller and social realism. The conventions that we used came from both genres:

· We had a teenage protagonist – which is one of the conventions of a teen film.

· We used dark locations and low lighting in some of the scenes which is the thriller elements of our film.

· Another thriller convention used was the fact that the sequence had a lot of enigmas such as why is he running? Who is he running from?

· Social realism conventions where also included such as terraced house showing working class.

-Our protagonist was a stereotypical teen trying to fit in the getting into trouble.

An opening sequence must follow a specific set of rules to be effective. The sequence needs to introduced characters and set up enigmas for the rest of the film, which ours does. Also opening sequ

ences must hook the audience otherwise they wouldn’t watch the rest of the film so it would be pointless.

Our film is different as it is a hybrid – there aren’t many hybrid teen thriller films out at the moment. The reason we did this is that the industry needs something new or else you would just end up with loads of films that where exactly the same.

Our sequence fulfils the requirements as it sets up enigmas and hooks the audience who would want to watch the rest of the film. Our sequence challenges the conventions by being in two totally different parts one running and one with the capture of the protagonist. I think that these innovations would pro

ve successful as there isn’t anything else on the market which is similar.

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

The main social group in the film is young people such as teenagers. We had to carefully think how to show our protagonist and what we should get him to wear. We decided on the stereotypical teenager:

Costume: Hooded jackets, tracksuit bottoms and trainers. This is the stereotypical working class teen clothes.

Appearance: Short spiky hair and tired looking, this is also the stereotypical teen look as people say that they always stay up late and use too much gel.

Actions: Include mainly running and vaulting, which shows that teens are energetic which usually they are (according to the older generations).

Function: The main function of the teen in our film is protagonist, which give it the teen genre and being chased which is what sets up the enigmas. Without our teen as the protagonist in the opening sequence the genre would be uncertain, this would ruin the effectiveness of the chase scene.

Settings: The setting is typical working class, back alleys and terraced houses. The park scenes are also working class surroundings as there are nearly always parks on council estates.

Speech: The narration in the final part of our opening sequence is typical working class; also it is very regional to the north. The voice over also highlights class, age and the fact that Jimmy (the main character) is a rebel.

The lighting in our film is a medley of dark and light scenes which is effective as it easily links the teen and thriller genres. The soundtrack is a rock song written by Hannah’s brother’s band, we chose a rock song as it is fast pace to suit the running and is what young people listen to. Our representation of the protagonist fits in with the stereotypes set up by the media industry.

Qu. 3: What kind of media institute might distribute your media product?

Companies that may distribute our film are companies that did similar films to ours such as:

Ø Rollercoaster films – the company that made and distributed films such as Eden Lake.

Ø Channel 4 films: May also be a company to distribute our film as they did such films as Trainspotting which is a social realism film.

Ø Finally paramount pictures – as they did such films as the godfather which is a gangster film which our film contains hints of so it is similar in some ways.

All these companies may consider distributing our film for one reason that it is similar to other products that they have distributed with success so this may make them more inclined to take on our film.

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

Our film would probably be watched by males aged between 16 and 25. This is due to the teenage main character and the genres. The nationality of the audience would probably most likely be British due to the filming all being done in Britain and the British narration.

The socio-economic status of the audience would be working to middle class as this is the location of the film. This audience would be a good one to screen our film to as they would have seen other films of the same type as ours and would be the most likely to enjoy our film. They are potentially a mass audience as teens watch a lot of films due to the fact that when it is raining, quite a lot in this country, they will watch films with mates.

From our audience feedback I think that our film would appeal to our target audience, the reason for this thought is that the audience was of the age 16 – 25 and most gave good feedback only a couple criticised the sequence.

Qu. 5: How did you attract/ address your audience?

In our video the equilibrium is set up by the establishing shots which show the peace and quiet of the surrounding area. Then suddenly there is a disruption which is Dan jumping over the camera and running straight away from the camera. The enigma that is created is “Why is he running?” This sudden interruption of the narrative makes the viewer jump and watch the film to see if their questions are answered. The event is placed after the quiet shots of backyards and the park.

The sequence creates the sense of time by having the protagonist run in multiple locations so that it seems as if he has been running for a long time, when in fact it was filmed in 1 day. So the sense of time created is actually fictional, this technique is used a lot in Hollywood films as it is effective. Also the change in lighting, in the first few running scenes it is quite dark as it is supposed to be early morning then later on in the running sequence it is daylight showing that it is mid day or at least during the day.

We haven’t really created binary opposition, which is one bad point of our sequence. In fact you don’t really learn anything about the protagonist, although introducing the characters is a convention of opening sequences, not introducing the characters creates an interesting enigma. The audience will wonder who he is and will watch the rest of the film to find out.

We used a narrative device in the form of a voice over in the final scenes of the opening sequence; we used the voice over to set up further enigmas. This also kind of introduces the character as well; although we did not really want it to, it was a bonus. The final part of the voice over “how the hell did I get here?” is a very effective way of setting up an enigma as it is the actual character posing a question to the audience and himself.

The tension and suspense is built up by the clever use of silence and then sudden loud rock music. The silence creates tension as it keeps the audience on the edges of their seats, because they are expecting something sudden to happen and make them jump which it does.

We didn’t use any stars in our film since we couldn’t due to the fact that it would be prohibitively expensive. So instead we used Daniel Hodgson a star amongst his friends.

The media language used in the film makes it an intense visual and auditory experience for the viewer, firstly the music in the running scenes is loud and fast paced – suited for the running. In the capture scenes the music is eerie suited to the dark and dingy attic style room that we filmed in. The sound is natural. Since most scenes are filmed outside the birds are chirping and the wind can be heard. Although we had to extract the audio on some of the scenes as you can hear background shouting and laughter of children on the park. The only mise-en-scene that we used deliberately is the clothes that the protagonist is wearing all the other mise-en-scene like graffiti and road markings are purely coincidental. We like the look of some of the shots such as the shadow and the falling over, as the lighting speed and sound work together well. Nearly all of our editing is continuity editing which jumps from one scene to another to keep up with the fast pace of the film, only on some of the scenes did we use fade out – fade in to slow down the sequence and give it substance.

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

Technology provided us with a database on which to base our research, I used such sites as YouTube and Google to find other films similar to what I wanted mine to look like. Another very important piece of technology we utilised a lot was the USB flash drive and USB port. It meant that we could take still images and find music at home then take them into college and export them to the college computers. The most complicated part of the project was learning how to use IMovie and get used to the Apple. Although I quite enjoyed learning how to use the software it hasn’t really been very useful, because I don’t see myself ever using an apple computer as I much prefer windows.

Some of our scenes we thought needed redoing, but upon viewing of the final product it looks like they came out fine and will not need redoing (Thank God).

Qu. 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 prelim task it becomes apparent that my editing and camera skills have evolved, from the shaky and slow movements to fast and steady camera transitions that can be seen in the final product. The editing in the prelim task is actually very good to say that it is my first attempt at it, but it is clear that in the final product I have learnt a lot more and how to edit effectively. The preliminary task was a lot harder to get the lighting and sound that we wanted as we filmed it in college so the noise was a lot harder to block out. The lighting was obviously going to be college lights which you can’t dim and if turned off it would be too dark. Whereas in our finally product we had more time and facilities to get the lighting and sound that we wanted.

In conclusion I think that film is actually very professional to say that it wasn’t filmed or edited by professionals. I would want to watch the rest of the film if I was in the cinema as it creates a lot of enigmas and hooks you in. Although it does have some weaknesses – obviously the budget wasn’t very high so we couldn’t do a lot of things that we wanted to. Also one thing which is actually annoying is the fact that the voice over is filmed in a very echoed room so on the film you can hear the echo but that isn’t really a very big weakness. I suppose that I will notice a lot more as I know it is there no one else has commented.

Matt Clarke

Hannah - Evaluation

Introduction
For my project I created an opening sequence of two minutes of a feature film. I worked along side Matthew Clarke. We both contributed to the project equally, getting involved with cinematography, mise en scene ideas, lighting and sound choices, and the final stage of editing. I wrote the script, but we both then worked on it to make it better.

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The genre of our sequence is teen thriller and social realism. We hit upon all the generic conventions of that genre in order to achieve the right audience reaction. Having a teen protagonist shows the teen side of the genre. The working class setting of back yards and an alleyway reflects the social realism aspects. The typical narrative of a thriller is often a mystery surrounded by action. This typical narrative is used in the form of enigmas in our sequence and the running from our main protagonist. The protagonist is a male teen, the typical character of the teen genre. The non diegetic music used when the protagonist is tied up is typical of the thriller genre as it is eerie. The low key lighting in the scene is also typical of a thriller, causing metaphorical contrasts.
Our sequence is an opening scene and therefore must include all the conventions of an opening sequence. The film is firstly set with the establishing shots of houses, roads and alleyways. The audience are aware of the working class location and also the social realism genre.

The protagonist is introduced through a montage of running shots. Here, the audience is aware of the teen genre. Enigmas are used – why is he running? Who’s caught him? – to keep the audience hooked. Here, the audience establishes the thriller genre. From the opening sequence we see the teen running from something which could suggest the theme of good vs. evil shown through the low key lighting. The lighting creates juxtaposition as it is light and dark – good and evil. The big difference that we have in our sequence is that we have mixed genres together to gain a wider audience. There is teen, thriller, social realism and also elements of horror and crime. The hybrid genre of our film makes it appeal interesting to the audience. It is vital to do something new to a genre as it keeps the audience hooked and stops them getting bored. We like the familiar, but we like ‘the same but different’ even better.
I thought that the new differences would be successful because we have a teen protagonist and our films audience is mainly for the teen. This works well because the audience find it easier to relate to a character of the same age and will therefore enjoy the film.
After we screened our sequence to the class, I found that our new differences were successful as most of the feedback was great.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our film focuses on the social group of young people, specifically teens as the protagonist of our film is a male teen. He is created under a specific image in order to reflect the social realism. His costume consists of a tracksuit and a hooded top, representing the stereotypical teen. His hair is short which reflects his age and social trends.

His speech is that of a regional accent, sounding cheeky, rebellious and working class. The stereotype of the working class of northern England. His actions consist of running which suggests that he has done something bad and is being chased. The setting of the film is that of working class suburbia, a stereotype of the gritty north. The non diegetic rock/punk music, when the protagonist is running, suggests a rebellious teen. This track is non copyrighted. My brother use to be in a band and he allowed us to use his song. The quick paced editing from the running scene creates a sense of chaos from the teen. When the protagonist is firstly revealed he jumps over the camera and is therefore in a low angled shot.

This suggests power from the teen, like he is stepping on society. We incorporated this ideology into our sequence as it reflects today’s zeitgeist of uncontrollable teens dominating people and places.
Within the short two minute sequence, the stereotype is not revealed as being challenged. However, if the rest of the film was to continue, the protagonist would become a more complex character, places would change and the stereotype would therefore be challenged. This is done to portray the saying: don’t judge a book by its cover. The character will start out how the audience expects him too and then change as the story unravels to make it more interesting.
From the audience feedback I noticed that the audience did respond to the protagonist as expected-

Me: ‘Who are the main characters in the sequence?’
Audience: ‘The guy running.’
Me: ‘What details made this clear?’
Audience: ‘He was in all the shots... he was tied up... and he was the one doing the voice over.’

One of the main reasons for our opening sequence is to help the audience establish the protagonist, and that’s exactly what it did. However, if I created the questionnaire I would have put in another question: ‘How is the protagonist portrayed?’ This kind of question would have given a more detailed feedback of the protagonist such as stereotyping.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Similar products have been made by Miramax Production Company, known for producing the British films ‘Trainspotting’ and ‘Brassed Off’. These two films focus on social realism, like our sequence and also use the gritty northern stereotype. ‘Brassed Off’ is filmed in a working class location, as is our film and ‘Trainspotting’ uses the same kind of cinematography to our film in the opening. The non diegetic music is also similar –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmzaBvKzrZI

If I was to send our film to Miramax I believe that they would consider backing the product for real. Firstly, Miramax seems to do a lot of social realism films and our film fits that category. Secondly, it is filmed in a professional way as all films are. And thirdly, our film reflects the zeitgeist of today and most films get made because of that, so the audience can relate.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The main target audience for our film would be 16-25 year olds, the cinema goers, as the main characters in the film are around that age. But to make it more specific I would say the male gender, as the protagonist is male and thrillers often attract more of the male gender than females. As our film is set in northern England, it would appeal more to a northern audience as they would be able to relate to the social realism part of it as it is slightly different to the southern social realism. Also, fans who enjoy a more complex storyline will definitely be targeted. All these audience’s are a mix of a large mass audience, due to the thriller genre and a loyal niche audience, due to the social realism genre. Over all it is a very big audience that will bring in a lot of money for the film so our product would do very well financially.

5. How did you attract your audience?
We decided to play around with the disruption of our film, trying to find the right place to put it. In the end we decided to place it right at the start, so that the audience is thrown into the action of the storyline and are hooked by it. However we still have the equilibrium. Our film is in a non chronological order, starting in the middle, going back to the beginning and then playing it all through to the end, with flash forwards and flashbacks.

The equilibrium is not shown in our sequence but is hinted at when the film rewinds – through the disruption – and to the beginning of the equilibrium when our main protagonist opens his eyes.

The use of rewind is an enigma. It suggests that it is going to show us something important and therefore keeps the audience watching. The use of binary opposition lighting, when the protagonist gets caught, not only suggests good and evil, but also a more in-depth character. It hints at there being more to just the stereotypical teen. The two non diegetic pieces of music are also contrasted. The change from the upbeat punk track to the eerie music suggests a contrast in situation. The protagonist obviously thought that he was free and rebellious as he ran but then realised he was doomed when he is caught.
The use of voice over gives more of an insight to the protagonist. It is played during the captured scene and so compensates for the fact that he cannot speak aloud. Instead the audience is taken into his mind to hear his thoughts. Even though it sounds like a direct audience address, introducing himself, it still holds qualities of his thoughts and feelings as he reacts to his surroundings, and analyses himself of why it’s all happening.

The opening establishing shots are slow edited and go on for quite a while and, as they pan around, it makes it seem like you’re looking for someone. The shot from in the tree is almost like a point of view shot from somebody watching and waiting for the protagonist. The diegetic sound of birds, children and cars creates the sense of realism for the audience.

In the second part, the high angle shot as the protagonist jumps a fence is almost like from a CCTV camera, again creating the sense of being watched, surveillance society. The tracking shot from behind the protagonist is like he is being chased.

The side pan shot through the fence metaphorically suggests that he is trapped in a cage as his chasers are closing in on him.
The editing is a fast montage which contrasts dramatically to the establishing shots. As the protagonist kicks the metal bin, we have used the diegetic sound enhanced by a non diegetic sound effect to make it more exciting. Then there is a blackout which suggests that the people have knocked him unconscious to take him where they need to go.
In the third part, there is a slow fade in from black, symbolic of the protagonist waking up. The medium close up is used to reveal his confused reaction to his new surroundings. The cross fading editing and blur is to portray his disorientation. The low angle shot reveals his hands tied by rope above his head. It shows the seriousness of the situation he is in.
The brick walls set the eerie location for the audience. The zoom towards the protagonist is to show that somebody is approaching. At this point the eerie non diegetic music gets tenser to enhance the approach.
In the fourth part, the camera is placed on the ground and the protagonist falls into the frame as he hits the floor to emphasise his fall. The low angle shot as the antagonist approaches suggests power over the protagonist.


There is more diegetic sound than non diegetic used in order to enhance the brutality of the attack. The editing is continuous so that the action flows realistically for the audience to follow.
The use of a freeze-frame on the antagonist’s foot is to create suspense in the audience as we don’t actually see him stand on the protagonist. Also, because it’s from the point of view of the protagonist, we only see it how he wants to see it, and he won’t want to be stood on. It is like the protagonist is telling us a story and is editing it for us, only telling us what he wants to.

In part five, the rewind is very quiet with only very little non diegetic eerie music. There is no diegetic sound at all. This means two things. Firstly, it reflects his mind, the silence now that he is unconscious again. And secondly, that it is not real, or more precisely, not happened yet.

6. What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Technology has played a major part in creating our sequence. In the research stage, I used ‘Youtube’ a lot to look at opening sequences of films to give me ideas for my project. In the planning stage, we used an online blog to write down our ideas. The fact that it was online meant that we could update it anywhere at any time. The blog also enabled me to put on clips from ‘Youtube’ so that they are down as research. It has also allowed me to upload photos of our filming sessions and our final product.
I have learned a lot on how to edit our footage using ‘iMovie’. It holds a huge range of editing techniques, sound effects, transitions and titles, all of which we used to our advantage in our sequence. However the editing techniques were quite limited. We wanted to overlap shots but it wouldn’t allow it. Because of this, we had to redo some shots and get it all in one take. To get our audience feedback we screened our sequence to the class and filmed the question and answer session afterwards. We then posted the video onto the blog. This is an effective way as it clearly shows that we can use all of the technology provided and it can all be put together – neat and tidy – on the blog.

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

Before we started our project, we did a preliminary task. The aim was to film using continuity editing in the smoothest way possible from shot to shot.

Our final product is better than our preliminary task for many reasons. One being that the tracking and panning shots are much steadier due to a homemade steadicam we created from a monopod. The mise en scene and decor of our location is much more meaningful and interesting due to the fact that we didn’t have to film in college like we did for our preliminary task. We chose our locations wisely. We took on board what we learned in the preliminary task about continuity editing and for our final product we mixed it with a montage of non continuity editing in order to show a time lapse. With more preparation, more time and a wider use of mise en scene, we were able to create a more in-depth character. The lighting was a lot more meaningful, especially in the captured scene, as we didn’t have to film it in college. We could experiment with our own lighting. The sound in our final product was more meaningful as we had more time to find the right song and sound effects.

FINAL PRODUCT - ENTITY

Conclusion
Overall I think that our final product is very good as it follows the opening conventions and generic conventions. It’s different to the ordinary of the thriller genre due to the teen and social realism aspects of it, therefore coming across as interesting to the audience. I feel that it is very close to an opening of a real film and could pass for one. The only weakness is that you can tell that it is filmed on a camcorder. The equipment used to film and edit were quite restricting in what they could offer. If we had more professional technology and equipment we could have created something that looked better, glossy maybe, like Hollywood. But in conclusion, our film looks very good despite that and I think that we have made a very good job of it.

Hannah Darbyshire

Audience Feedback

We did a screening of our film in front of the class and recorded all the feedback from questions that Hannah asked.

Hannah and Matt

Entity - final product!!

We finished editing on friday and here is our final product of 'Entity' !!!!!!!!!

Hannah and Matt

Film update

Seen above are pictures of the filming and editing proccess of our film. The image on the left shows hannah editing our film in the edit suite. The middle image depicts our interrogation/kidnap scene. In this seen we see our protagonist (Dan) waking up in a dark room with his hands bound and strapped to the roof rafters.

Also we have held auditions for our narrator for our final scene (pictured below) What we intend to do is to play the audio of the narration before/during the interrogaton/kidnap scene as the protagonist is asking how he ended up in the mess he is in.

Matt

Filming 2

Over the holidays we finished off filming the first half of our sequence (the running scene). As we decided that it is not the police who catches our protagonist, but somebody else, we filmed in the daytime because we didn't have to see the lights from a police car. We were not that sure how we wanted the protagonist to be caught, so we decided to just make it seem like he was surrounded, without actualy showing anybody else in the scene. After many reheasals and retakes of the shot, to get the best reaction, our actor ended up running around a corner(towards the camera), slowing down and looking around angrily and annoyed.
For our next scene that we are going to film this friday, a narration takes place to introduce the protagonist. For this we needed somebody with a really good voice that fits the image of the character. And after auditioning a handfull of people, we've found the guy who's voice sounds of a typical teenage boy, almost half heartedly spoken, but also comes across as innocent. We will record this narration on friday as well.

Hannah

Feedback 22/4/09

Very good Matt, Hannah - remember to keep blogging on your progress at least once a week! Miss McNulty

You should also add a list of your props and costume needed and discuss the locations for your shoot (include photos if you can.)