Evaluation: Gabi Paterson

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

When creating the product ‘A Diamond’s Glimmer’ that we used for our AS Media Studies coursework, we chose to use the forms and conventions of real media products to attempt to make a film opening which looked legitimate. The forms and conventions that always appear in the first two minutes of any film are: the production company logos, the titles, the name of the film as well as one or more representations of social groups and the genre of the film is made apparent.

The genre we chose to represent was crime/mystery. The beginning of crime and mystery films is often fast-paced and interesting so that audiences are engaged immediately. We watched the beginning of many different crime/mystery films or films which had similar characters to ours to find what related to our genre and further below is the beginning of the film '21'. This film contains many characters which are recieved by audiences in a similar way to how we intend ours to be recieved.

To create the logos we used in our film we used the program Adobe Photoshop CS2. Instead of borrowing the logos from real film companies, we wanted to create our own for the beginning of our film to make it more original and we looked at many of the famous production company logos to gather ideas.These are some of the major production company logos:

And these are the company logos we created:

We also wanted the title sequence of our film to look the same as the title sequences used in real film products. During the planning stage we looked at many different title sequences of the same genre like this one from the film ‘21’.

We came up with simple and effective titles that were easy to read and complimented the genre of our film. In films of crime/mystery genre, the titles are often simple and slick-looking to compliment the suave nature of the characters. Once we'd completed them we were told they were hard to read and we found it challenging to create the same effect that was intended while making the titles easier to read. After a lot of editing on photoshop we completed them and we were very happy with the result. We used the same font and style of our titles as we did in the end of our film beginning to show the name of our film. These are the titles that appeared in our film:

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

During our film opening we used the different technical areas of film-making to represent social groups in such a way that the audience is to respond to them in the way we want them to. This also allows for the different aspects of our genre to become apparent through the characters. The social group which is present in our film is the stereotypical image of a successful gangster. These gangsters are always represented as wealthy and suave. We chose for the actors to be dressed in neat, expensive looking suits at all times and they all owned expensive looking phones. This is so that the audience immediately see that the men are wealthy and ‘cool’ and therefore envy and respect them. This clip is taken from part of our film where the characters are introduced. The impression that audiences get of these characters is that they always have everything under control – nothing ever happens by chance or goes wrong for them. Please take notice of their outfits, mobile phones and the manner in which they speak and act.

This can be compared to the following clip taken from the television drama ‘Hustle' in which the characters are con artists. Although they represent a different social group as our characters are gangsters, we intend to have a similar representation:

I think that audiences watching our product would like the characters of the film and be interested by what is to happen throughout the rest of the film. We also want the audience to support these characters and to want them to succeed in the ‘job’ which is spoken about in the beginning of the film. We chose to mention this ‘job’ without explaining it so that audiences are drawn in by the story.

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

Ideally we would like one of the large media production companies to distribute our product as that would mean we would have more access to advertising and marketing. We want our media product to be able to reach the largest possible audience to gain a larger profit. To answer this question I researched the companies that distributed some of the products which have the same genre as ours. The following production companies produced these films:

Warner Brothers:

Warner Brothers and Columbia Pictures:

Columbia Pictures and Goldwyn Meyers:

The best choice for distribution for our film would definitely contain one of the major production companies and a possible merger with another company. This would allow for our product to become more widely known as different companies provide different audiences.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for our media product would most likely be anyone over the age of fifteen. We would not want a younger audience than this because classifying the film as ‘15’ allows for the product to contain more material which would be deemed inappropriate for younger children. After researching the British Board of Film Classification website I was able to read the guidelines for a film which is classified ‘15’. Provided is the information which describes what is allowed and what isn’t allowed by the BBFC in a ‘15’ film. These are the guidelines we have followed with our product and would intend to follow if creating the entire film:

Discrimination
The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory
language or behaviour.
Drugs
Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not
promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily
accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example,
aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.
Horror
Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic
or sexualised.
Imitable behaviour
Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and
self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be
copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.
Language
There may be frequent use of strong language (for example,
‘fuck’). The strongest terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be
acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated
use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.
Nudity
Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without
strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a
non-sexual or educational context.
Sex
Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail.
There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour,
but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable
unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is
sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.
Theme
No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is
appropriate for 15 year olds.
Violence
Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction
of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to
be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also
unlikely to be acceptable.
There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence
but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and
have a strong contextual justification.

The main aim of our film is simply entertainment and excitement so anyone who enjoys films of this nature would be the intended audience for our film. Any other people who prefer films of the same genre or who enjoyed watching any of the films I have made reference to throughout the evaluation would be part of our intended audience. This means that in advertising and distribution we would have to focus on finding ways to make our film appealing to our intended audience and using advertising media that they would come in contact with for example; the internet.

How did you attract/address your audience?
We aimed to attract our audience through the excitement of the world we had created and the use of cool and interesting characters:


After watching the beginning of our film we want audiences to feel engaged and to be intrigued by what is to happen to the characters. We made the atmosphere of the film fast-paced and exciting although the characters are laid back. This is what we thought audiences generally would expect from the genre we’ve advertised our film as. Following the common idea that audiences enjoy a film which is about a world apart from theirs we chose the gangster characters. Also, the combination of different genres widens the audience because different people would choose to watch our film depending on their preferences. Other films and television dramas which contain characters like these are often received well by audiences:

Ocean's 11:

Underbelly:

Hustle:



Casino Royale:


We addressed the audience informally through our film beginning as we did not intend for our film to be life-changing or to make the audience think too much. Our film is simply made to entertain which is what we produced it for so an informal address of the audience is required. We want the audience to feel as though they can just sit back, relax and enjoy!

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Throughout the process of our film’s production I have learnt a great amount about the filming and editing process required to create a feature film. I have also learnt a lot about writing up an internet blog and how different aspects of the internet work for example: uploading, downloading and embedding video and sound. The first new technology I learnt to use was the video camera. We were taught which angles to use to imply certain things and how to get the best shots by using a tripod and other resources available to us.

After filming the shots we needed for our product, I learnt how to edit film together using Premiere Elements. This was interesting as it allowed for me to aid our group in creating the beginning of our film. I learnt how to use Premiere Elements effectively which involved piecing together bits of film to create meaning and follow the storyline of the film. Premiere Elements also allowed us to introduce sound and music to our film and I learnt how to manipulate this effectively to create a certain atmosphere or mood.

The other program I was introduced to was Photoshop Elements. During the production of our film I was able to learn how to use the many tools provided on Photoshop and how to create slick, authentic-looking titles. As well as helping to create the production company logos. This was interesting as it has opened up the many things that be created and edited using Photoshop.




Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
When I first began media studies I had no idea how to use a camera or anything about film-making. After creating our preliminary task I had learnt how to use a camera and how simple shots and editing are used to create meaning. Once our group moved on to producing the film for our main task, I learnt a lot more about the challenges involved with film-making. For example; we chose to use a phone conversation in our main task as opposed to the shot/reaction shot conversation in our preliminary task. The conversation on the phone was harder to edit right because we needed the audience to believe that the characters were speaking to each other. Having said that, I really enjoyed the process of creating our main task as I feel my skills have improved greatly.

During the filming of our main task, our group was constantly finding new and resourceful ways of filming shots to make our film more exciting. Now I am able to use a camera effectively to get the shots required and edit them in such a way that the film makes sense. The representation of social groups and the use of genre in films was another thing that I’ve learnt how to manoeuvre to make the audience react the way I want them to. I’ve also learnt to appreciate real films when I watch them as I understand how much time and effort is required in creating them.

How did the feedback you received help you to make a better film opening?

I have found that the feedback we have receieved throughout our preliminary task and main task has been very helpful to our final product. This is because other people's opinions and views of things allowed for them to point out problems with our film or changes that could be made that none of our group had thought of. As the people in our class are from the age group that our film is aimed at, it was helpful to get feedback from our classmates each time we'd made improvements to our film.

The first time we formally asked our classmates and teacher for feedback on our main task, their comments were very useful and helped us with aspects of our film that we hadn’t even noticed. Our teacher, Mrs Downes said that the graphics and logos were good but the voice over didn’t quite sound right as one of the scenes appeared outside but the characters voices had been recorded inside. As you can see by the previous posts on our blog, we found recording the voice over correctly quite challenging and we hadn’t thought to change it until Mrs Downes noticed the problem.

Our classmates mostly said that the opening titles went on for a bit too long and that we should shorten or fade them as well as saying that they did not properly understand the story line. We took their advice about the titles on board but chose not to change the titles as we preferred them as they were. Positive and negative criticism is vital when making a film and as a group I think it was important for us to decide whether or not we wanted to change aspects of our film or keep them as they were.

The best bit of feedback we recieved was when we first showed our main task film to our teacher and her first comment was that the music implied a film from the same sort of genre as 'Hustle'. This was very encouraging for us as a group because it was exactly what we were aiming for!

Some of the specific comments on our near completed main task were:

Henri - Shamedia said...
I think it was very well done with a lot of camera shots and good music fitting to the genre. Good work!
11 March 2010 03:31

sharambourne said...
Well done guys excellent camera shots really well done bit fuzzy but all our films are so dont worry about that. otherwise really well done should be proud of what you guys have done.!!!
11 March 2010 03:36

Anonymous said...
Well doneI thought that it was well finished and I very much liked the shot with the split screen showing both stories. Also i think that the music fitted the theme of the video well. CongratsGregor
11 March 2010 03:43

Kim and Jenny AS Media said...
Jenny wrote:I think the film is really good as it uses alot of different shots and also the whole way through the mise-en-scene is thorough. Good work.
11 March 2010 03:45

It was really encouraging for our group to receive feedback like this as well as the constructive criticism. Our class mates let us know that while there were still things we needed to change and fix about our film, we had still created a quality product that we could be proud of.

( Gabi )

Evaluation: Simon Dethleffsen

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

Our AS Media product is the film opening of a movie from the action/crime genre. Every genre has typical ingredients. In most films, there is a stereotype of a character or a group of characters, what I will talk about in the second question. But we can find in all the parts of filmmaking things which are typical of a genre. The parts of film making are: Cinematography, editing (SFX), mise-en-scene and sound. When we started our research, we were not sure which genre we want to enter. Therefore we looked on lots of different genres and tried to identify the ingredients. We then looked at which of them we can use as well, as our possibilities as AS Media students are limited. During our research we decided to produce a movie in the action and crime genre. This might sound strange, because we can not do any special effects or anything as students in a boarding school. But during our research we discovered some interesting facts about the openings of action and crime movies which gave us the confidence to produce our coursework in these genres as well.

As I said before, every genre has it’s own ingredients; and so does the action and crime genre. But the opening sequence actually can be different to the rest of the movie, it is some sort of introduction. Therefore I think the ingredients for the action and crime genre can be completely different to the ingredients of the opening.For example, Ocean’s 11 is an action and crime movie, without any doubt. But if people have a closer look to the opening sequence, they realize, that there is no action at all in that particular sequence. It is the exact opposite. The first seconds, there is just this one shot of a nearly empty room. The viewer can see a small window and an empty chair. After a long time of silence a man sits down, but the camera does not move at all, it stays in the same position.



The man, who is Ocean (G. Clooney) starts a conversation with a woman. We would expect that the conversation is brought the to the viewer by shot/reaction/shot, but actually it is not. The cinematography does not change, it stays on this one shot. The editing is very slow, although we would not expect this to be the case in an action movie. But this is literally the “calm before the storm”. It gets faster and more interesting during the movie, but the opening sequence is very simple.

We did this in our movie as well. Bewteen the start of the movie (after the titles) at 11 seconds to the finish of the second shot at 28 seconds is a lot of time. Two shots in 17 seconds, that is very slow. But it is the "calm before the storm", that is what we wanted to achieve. The two shots are shown below.

The "calm before the storm" gave us the confidence to enter that genre without having any fast moves or special effects. We used the form of the opening of Ocean’s, but at the same time we created something new, a new product with a new storyline. I think that although our film fits into the form of the genre, this might be seen differently in the future. The media business develops and changes all the time, very fast. What ever is new now will be old next year and so I think the genre might change as well. Every single product changes and develops the genre, because every product is different and has something new.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

What is a stereotype? A stereotype is a conventional image for a particular social group or person. We can find stereotypes everywhere. They are in our everyday life, we have them in our heads. For example, for some there might be “the football fan”, which is a negative stereotype, not every football supporter is a hooligan; a stereotype can be positive as well. We don’t just have stereotypes in our everyday life, we can find them in the virtual world and so we can find them in movies. Every genre has it’s own stereotypes in the main characters. In a love story, there is always this nice understanding guy, and so there are stereotypes in the action and crime genre as well. The stereotype of a man in the action and crime genre is different. During our research we were inspired by the series “Hustle” and we found great stereotypes in that.

The idea of the cool guy fascinated us. The pictures above are some screenshots from trailers from Hustle. It is always the look that makes the difference. In the first picture a young, pretty, nice guy sits in a casino and his face tells everything. He is confident stares to one point behind the camera, it is a bit mysterious, he is obviously watching someone, but we don’t know who. The second picture shows, that the stereotype does not necessarily needs to be a young man. There is a young woman and an old man and it is clear that they fit into the stereotype as well. In the third picture, there is the stereotype of the pimp. Another gangster, who wears the costume of a pilot walks on an airport with two stewardesses, on on each side. In the fourth and last picture, there are no people in it, but it shows the action of the stereotypes really well. A sporty car just drives out of the garage. But he does not have a ticket, the car is so sporty (small), that he can go under the barrier. It shows the action of these people, it is very smart, although not 100 percent correct. Of course people need a ticket, but he is just “too cool” for one. These people skip things and break rules, but often without harming anyone else, this makes it acceptable for the viewer.

On the one hand, he is the bad guy, he is the thief and in real world he would be wrong. But it is not the real world in a movie and so the viewer can like him. He does things which are against the law, but he does them in a smart way. We found this stereotype during our research in lots of different movies, for example on the Ocean movies, in 21, etc.

In our action/crime product we have four actors, three people on the phone and a barkeeper. In the sequence the viewer can see a man in a bar, calling two other people. They talk about “the operation in Dubai”.With the three people on the phone we represented people from the upper class. They are the typical stereotype of gangsters who the audience likes in an action/crime movie, the clothes they are wearing and their whole appearance is showing this really clearly. If we compare that screenshot of our film above with the screenshots of "Hustle" we can see things which are similar in both of the picture. On the one hand it is the whole set, the sun is shining, it is nice and warm, on the other hand it is the detail on the actor, the conficence they show. We tried to show this also with the other technical areas of film making. The music we chose fits on the one hand into the genre, but on the other hand the music tells about the characters as well: Cool and fast. In the editing we tried to show the stereotypes as well. There are some quick shots in the beginning. The footsteps and the shot from the back shall show on the one hand one side of the characters. Fast. But the characters have another side, the cool side. This is represented by the long pan shot of me walking on the road and talking about the travel data. The character has a cool voice and he knows exactly what he is talking about. The barkeeper represented might fit into the lower class, but she might become more important during the movie and it might turn out that she is actually the fourth gangster. This change would make the movie more interesting, but we decided to represent her as a lower class person in the beginning because a different range of classes makes the movie more interesting, even if it is just a small detail like the barkeeper.

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

For the distribution of our product we would ask a big publishing company like Warner, Universal or 20th Century Fox. The pictures below are their company logos. Interesting is, that none of them are independent, they belong to News Corporation (20th Fox) or Time Warner (Warner Bros.) and NBC Universal (Universal Studios).

If we cooperate with one of these big companies, the percentage chance on a success with the movie are much higher. But as a small or new company it is very difficult to cooperate with one of these companies, because they have lots and lots of partners already and they are successful with them, so there is not really a point for them to take the risk to cooperate with a new company, unless it looks like that movie could be an even greater success. Also, the markets of all of these companies are different. Whilst 20th Century Fox produced some animated movies recently, for example Ice Age or Avatar with many special effects, Warner Bros. entered a new market recently, the market in teenagers. That is very intelligent, because teenagers are most familiar with the new ways of media and so there is great potential. Warner Bros. published movies but also TV series such as The O.C. which was a high success all over the world. Universal Studios, another big company, works differently. They are the company which is most likely to cooperate with a british film production company. Recently, they did several cooperations with Working Title Films, on of the biggest british production companies.

We know now the markets of these companies, now we need to decide, which one is most likely to cooperate with us and which one is most likely to support us where we need support. Warner would be a good choice, as they published some teen movies recently, which is our audience as well. But we also need to think about their relationship to Britain and so Universal might be most likely to publish our movie. We should not forget, they have experience in the action/crime genre as well, they published Ocean’s 11.

The media business is changing, we can see that there are less and less companies, the small publishing companies start cooperating with big ones now, it is the form of monopolies. The companies might distribute our movie if they think that the movie will be a success. Everything is about money. Before people normally ask publishing companies to cooperate before they start producing the movie, all they have to convince them is the storyline and the storyboard, maybe some possible photos of the locations to film. We have done all these things on our blog. Also, very important is the impression the publishing company gets from us. Therefore, a legitimate manner and a legitimate picture of the company is very important. This all starts by the company logo. That is, why we spent so much time on the company logos, so that we get them well done. Below, there are the final pictures of them and we used these in our movie as well.




Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience is the group of people who are reached by something, for example a film. The audience is absolutely essential in the film business. At the beginning of producing a film, you need make sure, that there is an audience for that product. In the film business everything is about money, and you just get the money, if there are a lot of people who pay for watching it, so you need to have a big audience. For every product, there is a target audience. These are the people who are most likely to watch that product.

For action and crime movies, the people in the target audience are young men between 15 and 30 years. The target audience has watched other films of that genre before, for example Spooks. Therefore, here is an embedded a trailer and a scene of Spooks to give you another idea about it.
The BBFC classificates all the movies published. If thez classificate the movie as universal, everybody can see it, which means, this would be a greater audience. But in our movie, where special effects and fights will happen further in the movie, I would reckon we would get the "Aged 15 years and older" classification.

Because we are still students and still young, we thought and we think that our audience is the best audience to produce for. We are part of the audience so we know the best what is going on and can work the best storyline out. Over the year, we did not just work on our product and hoped, the audience will enjoy it. We asked people from the audience for feedback. These are people partly from inside the class, but we also asked people from outside the class to comment. They then posted their feedback on our blog as well. After people gave feedback, we talked about it in the group and improved our film if necessary.

How did you attract/address the audience?

The majority of the today’s younger generation, which is our audience, wants to be entertained. We attracted them in this way: We wanted to entertain them with an interesting and obvious storyline. It takes places in the present and the viewer does not need to know about any other things, if the movie would be set in the past, the viewer would need to know what was going on at that point of time, which makes him think. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but if the viewer does not have the knowledge, he does not understand the storyline and does therefore not enjoy the movie. But the attraction starts earlier, the attraction starts with the title of the film. Although the title is the last picture of our opening, the viewer sees the title before he wants to watch the movie. That is why we chose the title “A Diamond’s Glimmer” we think and our feedback from the audience said that this is an attractive title for an action and crime movie. We also used different the technical areas of filmmaking to attract the audience. The music of our film is a central part of the opening and so it is one of the main attract-features as well.

If someone speaks in public, he addresses the audience. A movie is produced by a director and the director gives a message to the audience, but he does not appear in the movie, he uses the characters for that. In our movie, the characters address the audience informal. That is, because the characters themselves are informal.

After the one character gave the travel details, the boss in the bar does not say “Thank you very much indeed, Mr. Something.” The boss asks straight the next question, for him, there is no time to loose. The characters don’t have a last name with which they could call address each other more formally.

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

Over the year, I used lots of different media sectors. Some of them were new to me and I got introduced to them, with some others I worked before and I could improve my knowledge. The internet was part of our everyday life as we needed to post everything we did on the blog. Blogging was a new experience for me.

At the beginning, I find it hard to talk about everything on the blog, because it takes a lot of time, but over the year I got used to it. For the research, we used the internet as well. Here, the IMB, Wikipedia and Google were central parts of our research and we learned how to use these websites more effectively.

The TV is used very differently in Britain then in Germany. It is not that the channels are different, also the programs varies. I took watching the British TV not just as an opportunity to study TV Drama, I also tried to spot the differences between German and British TV. These are quite significant, for example, more people watch Pay TV here than in Germany, but Germans have channels such as the BBC (ARD and ZDF).

I had already some experiences in working with camera, tripod, computer and software. But you always learn if you do something. I never worked with a Microsoft computer before which was a new experience for me.

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

How did the feedback you received help you to make a better film opening?

The feedback is absolutely essential in the process of film production. Even professionals go up to their colleagues and ask them, how they find it and how they could improve it.
We had the advantage, that we, as students between 16 and 18 years, are a part of the target audience. We therefore did not just ask anyone about our feedback, but we asked people from the target audience to comment on the movie.
We asked for feedback in different ways. For example, we sometimes asked people to comment on our blog. Some of the feedbacks we got as a comment are below:

“The music syncs perfectly with each shot, also the voices of the people was loud and clear which is a good, however there is a shot where one of the character is on his phone, you can see his lips moving but there is no sound instead the person he is talking to on the phone is heard. Other than that it’s a great opening.”

“However, the sound was a bit off and the voice recording sounded too much like it was recorded in a room and not the same place that it had been filmed.”

“The video that your group made is really exceptional. As I saw it for the time it felt like watching a very high quality movie.”

We got positive and negative feedback. Both are very important. The positive feedback made us feel proud and happy and we were willing to put more effort into the product. With the negative feedback, we got to know what we could improve. One thing which was often said was that the voice over sounded not realistic. Another thing mentioned was that the shot when the viewer could see the mouth moving of a character, but he wasn’t talking.

We didn’t just ask our classmates for feedback, we also asked our teacher to give us critical feedback. She watched our movie and then we had a big discussion about it. She said that she liked our graphics. Although we didn’t use any effects on them such as black/white, they still look good and without effects more realistic. But she also mentioned that the titles would be difficult to read, we therefore added another white stroke to them, what we mentioned in another post on the blog before.

Before:

After (With the extra stroke):

Finally, we asked our classmates what they would think about our final product. In the video below, there is some final feedback.

Evaluation: James Grieve

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

The conventions of film are having sharp, interesting openings with good music and good looking titles. The opening leaves a cliff hanger which sets up the rest of the film and makes the viewer want to stay and watch it all.

We tried to achieve this cliff hanger as well. In our feedback people commented that they wanted to see more and this was backed up by other people who watched it.

The genre we chose was crime/mystery. The conventions of this genre are suspense and tension. This genre is represented by anything that sticks out from the norm.

We based our media product on different real life products. We wanted to have a sleek and cool product that jumped out at the audience so they immediately thought that it was very good. We used the conventions of a real media product in many ways. Our product started off with upbeat intense music that draws in the audience as it immediately gives the feel that something mysterious is going to happen. If you look at the opening titles of Hustle, the music is upbeat and mysterious and this gives you a feeling that not everything is as what it seems.



We observed conventions of media by having titles from the start to indicate the makers and director of the film. 21 is a good example of how we observed the conventions. It starts off with a voice over, but then the titles come and interesting modern music is played in the background.



We never really did anything in comparison to real media products and this worked well for us.


For the production titles we could have used many, like Paramount or Warner Brothers but we decided to make our own to show how our skills with media techniques have improved throughout the course.

The music and the overall edit of our product were finished to a standard were the audience would be interested by the product. We wanted to have a Hustle or Ocean's 11 related theme as these products appeal to a wide ranging audience. We researched these products extensively and also other such products that resembled our theme. To get the feel of suspense into it was very important. We wanted to leave the audience thinking that they wanted to see what happened next. We used a wide range of shots and different paces for the editing to make it look sharp and interesting. We asked for feedback from our target audience and they said they new exactly what genre it is from the music. Real films use the music to help identify the genre as well and so we were happy that we achieved this. We were advised that we needed more shots and this was fine as we had filmed many different shots and angles and so we could add them in.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product represents certain social groups in society. We chose to represent criminals in our product but also smart intelligent people that knew what they wanted and how to get it.

The music in it gives it a feel of sophistication, so the audience know that these aren’t just ordinary criminals. Like the characters in the picture above we wanted ours to look cool and to be well dressed so they didn't appear as just anybody.

For the cinematography we gave it a feel of secrecy and cover up by using different camera shots and angles, like a high angled shot of the side of one characters face and a low angle shot from behind of another character to show him walking along without revealing too much about him. There is a tracking shot through the trees and a pan shot to make it look like someone is trying to look at him and listen in on the conversation.

This clip is from Hustle and it shows the pan shot we were trying to create and the feel we were trying to give by using it.

This picture emphasizes the feel of mystery and tension as we do not know who this woman is or what her part in the overall film will be. It shows that the three main characters might be being watched.



We created a cool image to represent our characters as upper class criminals who left the dirty jobs to other people. This clip is another example of the feel we were trying to give our film opening. An image of a group of people who new what they want and who feel they are above other people. Criminals are stereotyped by the public as being dirty, cruel, disgusting people who sneak into their houses at night wearing a balaclava and carrying a sack over their back. Or being dangerous people that could cause great harm to you if you got on the wrong side of them.

This is definitely wrong and our film shows this. Most criminals are normal people that look ordinary and and show no outward signs of being devious or aggressive. Even if on the inside they are planning to rob a bank or break into a house, most of the time on the outside they look like they are going about their lives in a completely normal way.

In the feedback our target audience said that our film opening reminded them of films like Ocean's 11 and the people in it. This was good news as Oceans has the same genre that we were aiming for.

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



Who would be the audience for your media product?

The ideal audience for our product would be young people as sleek expensive crime films are one of the genres that most appeals to this age group. This is also the best audience as far as selling is concerned as they are the age group that watches most films and use the new technologies that are now available, like downloading off the Internet. They also love going to the cinema because of the newly incoming 3D technologies and the social climate there is.

People who love our genre would be perfect as they would know what to expect from it. Closed Mystery is a sub-genre of crime and it adds suspense by not revealing who the characters actually are until near the end. Suspense is added by the soundtrack, different camera shots and surprising plot twists.

By using the Broadcaster's Audience Research Board we could research what programmes are most favoured and what genre they are based on. When Hustle series 6 was aired on BBC 1 it had average viewing figures of approximately 5.9 million per programme and it was rated in the Top 15 of most watched BBC 1 programmes every week.

Spooks is another programme that has a similar genre to our film. It was rated between 5 and 7 million per week when it was aired regularly in 2009/10, coming in the BBC's top 20 of the week. When the first programme of series 8 aired it was in the top 3 and then the show remained popular throughout the series.

These figures show that this type of genre is very popular and has a large audience which follows it. This is also proven by the numerous awards won with these two shows over the years.

How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted our audience by having music and a theme that they can relate to. For example we did not have classical music in our film as this is more popular with older people outside our target audience. We had modern music that would appeal to younger age groups which is the group we’re aiming at. We look at many different types of music and narrowed it down to two pieces that we thought suited our genres.



The music in this clip was our first choice, however it was very repetitive and so would get boring very quickly. Although it was what we were looking for it have the overall affect we wanted.



This clip shows the music we chose for our final film. It is similar to the first piece of music with a feel that creates tension and suspense. However this music is less repetitive and more interesting. It is upbeat and appeals to our target audience.

We addressed our audience by having young characters that used high end technology like an iPhone. They wore watches and dressed in good looking suits. The location was unique and there was good weather so this gave an overall feel that the sun shined down on these characters.

This shot is off the approach of character three from windmill, towards the bar to meet the other characters.

This shot is of the building with the bar in it. It is a very old building which adds to the overall affect of the film opening and attracts the audience even more. It is not being filmed in some ordinary council estate but in a very stunning and unique location.

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

I have learnt many new things about the world of media and the different processes of constructing it from making this product. Before this I had never used the programmes you can use to edit a film and put titles in it. I learnt about Photoshop for the first time and all the different layers and instruments you can use to make the titles.

I have learnt about using editing programmes which is the most important thing in the production of the product. You have to get all of the video together which takes a lot of time and putting visual effects into the movie to give it a higher class and better production. The sound is one of the most important things and getting the right sort of music for the scene and the genre of the product is very important. In our film we used a split screen to show our knowledge of Premiere Elements.

This adds to the quality of the film opening and it makes the film more interesting and it shows how in sync all the characters are.

We put different sound affects into our film like the phone ring and the explosion at the beginning.

You have to balance it out with the speech and the background noises and special effects, like a phone ringing. The most important thing I have learnt is to balance the speech with the music and to keep the film interesting by using different paces of editing.

We had to use a blog to show our progress throughout the year. I had never used a blog and so I had to learn everything about a blog and what you can do with it. I learnt how to upload and embed screenshots and clips and how to comment on other people's blogs and download clips and trailers off the Internet.

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

How did the feedback you received help you to make a better film opening?

All film producers need to have feedback from their target audience so they can work on improving their product for the better enjoyment of the audience. Our target audience was young people and this was perfect as we were able to bounce ideas off our classmates.

SHAmedia Productions said...
The opening was really good. But personally I would put more different camera angles.

I thought that your intro was very good! The shots look very professional and effective, the music that you have picket for your opening sequence is very good and it suits the theme, but the only bad comment is that I think you should get more camera angles. Written by Sultan Mackinnon

We learnt from these posts that we needed to have a more wide range of camera angles and shots. As we found out after incorporating more shots and angles into our film, negative feedback can be very useful as it is constructive criticism and listening to it can greatly improve your film.

As we also found out positive comments are very good as they boost your confidence and reassure yourself that what you are making is a good product.

We had problems with the speech in our film as it sounded like it was all spoken inside. This is backed up by our classmates:

Kim and Jenny AS Media said...
I think that over all it is good, the only thing that needed to be changed when I watched it was the audio as it was recorded inside, it didnt sound like they were actually talking when you watched it. Also it sounded like they were reading it off of a script they need to put more emotion into it and make it sound more like a proper conversation.

Not going to lie it reminded me of the Oceans, which is good considering they are one of my favourite films. I thought the sound wasnt the best it was quite hard to hear what they where saying but other than that the film was a great sucess well done !!! Charlie Lambourne

These comments show that the sound in our film needed to be improved. We got feedback from our teacher as well. This was very helpful as she was outside our target audience and it helped us see how appealing it was to different age groups.

Mrs Downes: 00:29:03 - there is a very "hissy" sound
00:44:02 - "drags" a bit

These areas were two big things we changed after receiving the feeback and it shows how important it is to the overall product.

SHAmedia: I think it was very well done with a lot of camera shots and good music fitting to the genre. Good work!

sharambourne said...
Well done guys excellent camera shots really well done bit fuzzy but all our films are so dont worry about that. otherwise really well done should be proud of what you guys have done.!!!

All of these comments and the many others that we received helped us to expand and improve our film and develop our knowledge of what a good media product is and how using your target audience is a great way of making sure you have got the most out of your product.

Evaluation: Group Questions

As a group we sat down and read through each of the questions together discussing what we felt the answers were. We then together compiled answers to each of the questions within our group:

At a micro, technical level, how well did you observe the conventions of continuity, the language of film and the grammar of the edit?
We observed the conventions of continuity, the language of film and the grammar of the edit by planning the different stages of our task to bring a good quality product which would reflect our knowledge of the language of film and show our progress throughout the course.

In the film opening which our group created, we observed the conventions of continuity by making sure that each time we went out to film the weather, setting, time of day and costumes were similar enough that all of the film would appear as though it was taken on the same day at the same time. We used many different shots to show what our genre was and to show our knowledge of filming. We used high angled and low angled shots to show the different personalities of the characters and panning shots and long shots to establish the setting and to make it more interesting. We also synchronized the shots with the music to make it look more sleek and professional.

Our opening conserved the language of film by having titles to show the different people involved in its making. It had upbeat music which kept it interesting and the storyline makes the audience want to find out what happens afterwards. We also conserved film language by having many different types of shots and different paces of editing to explain the storyline in a different way from the characters. By doing all of these things we conserved film language and kept the opening sleek and snappy so the audience was not bored straight away and got drawn into the film.

How many mistakes did you make, and did you improve in the main task having made errors in the preliminary exercise?
Throughout the production of our film beginning, we made many mistakes with filming and editing but we were still able to create a good quality product. Filming was challenging as we had to provide a range of different shots. Because we are media students and do not have access to proper equipment, we had to find new, creative ways of filming each shot. Each lesson which we were filming in, we filmed each different shot from various angles and filmed them all a few times so that we could use the best one. When we would take the camera back to the classroom and look at what we’d filmed we found that there were a few bad shots. We overcame the errors we’d made by filming far more shots than we needed and then we were able to pick the best shots to use for our film.

We had the same problem in our preliminary task as we had to find different ways to film someone in a classroom. When filming our main task we were far more creative with the shots that we used and our editing. When filming our preliminary task one of the main problems we had was organisation which we believe we improved greatly on when we were filming for our main task. We did this by allocating certain lessons to film

At a more symbolic, macro level, how does your fiction film reflect or challenge the conventions of the genre or type you are working in? Will it fulfil the ‘contractual’ nature of film genre or will it subvert expectations deliberately?
Our film is supposed to fit into the action and crime genre. We think that it was a challenge for us to enter this genre. Action genre means action, and of course as Media students in a school we do not have green screens, we can not use any special effects. But in the opening sequence of an action/crime movie there must not necessarily be a lot of effects. For example in Ocean’s 11, they do not start with the big thing at the beginning. In the opening sequence, they meet each other, get to know each other. The opening sequence is there to introduce to the storyline; you do not need to use special effects in it.

Are there any elements of deliberate pastiche or parody, where you ‘play’ with the genre’s codes and history? Are there any intertextual moments where you hint at a reference to another film?
During the production of our film we did take inspiration from many films which represent the same genre as ours but we did not use any deliberate pastiche or parody. Although we enjoy watching films like ‘James Bond’ and ‘21’ we did not want to create a product which has already been made but instead create something completely new and exciting. This allowed us to include the codes and conventions of the crime and action genres that we like and leave out the bits that we don’t like. We did not choose to include any intertextual moment where we made reference to another film. Although we were only able to create an opening we would like audiences to associate our film beginning with the likes of ‘Ocean’s 11’ and the television series ‘Hustle’.

What kinds of audience pleasure are you trying to provide, and how confident are you that you have delivered on this promise?
Our piece of film is an entertaining production. As in the action genre, there aren’t many films which actually make the viewer think. Nowadays, the films of a high entertaining standard are often more successful than a movie which makes the audience think about something. Something is entertaining, when the audience feels good about it, when they identify themselves with the movie. We tried to achieve this. The audience just gets this feeling if everything fits together. The probably most difficult bit to provide the feeling is the quality of the acting; the actors need to be “believable”. As we are studying Media and not Drama, we decided to focus on other things rather than on the acting. We are confident, that the music is a good soundtrack to provide this feeling. If there is a failure in continuity, the viewer looses the feeling immediately, because he realises that the story is not true. We re-filmed some bits when we realises that we could do something better to provide the “maximum feeling”.


Group Management:
How did you manage the group dynamics, equipment and resources, interim deadlines and the necessary collaborative nature of film making?
When we began working together as a group we weren’t as able to work together well as we are now. During the filming of our preliminary task and throughout the planning process of our film we often found it challenging to distribute the work evenly and get our own share done on time. As our film began to take shape and we decided on a definite idea and began filming, our group management improved greatly. By the end of the filming and editing process we were able to delegate a task to each member of the group for each lesson so we were all constantly sharing the workload. This meant that we were able to meet the deadlines we had set for ourselves on time and enjoy the creative process.

We had easy access to equipment and resources as we would use the camera and tripod during our media studies lessons and they were always available to us. The only other resources we needed to use were costumes which the actors provided for themselves and props which we found within our group.

What health and safety and logistical problems did you solve?
At the beginning of the process of making our product we intended to use some real action as we filmed in the action genre, but then we decided not to do it because action always causes a risk. If we would for example jump from a roof, we would have to repeat that many times as we need several shots, there is a high risk of injury. We are in a boarding school, therefore everything we did had to be okay with the school, we needed permission for everything. We are “just” media students and not real producers, therefore we could not just close the roads for an hour to film our shots, we always had to look out for cars and move for them. That process took a lot of time and was annoying sometimes as we had to stop filming but we were able to get all the shots in the end.

How did you organise your human resources – the people involved in the production?
A movie without any characters is not highly exciting, just shots of the countryside and some music do not tell a story. Therefore the actors are the most important part in the movie. A face can tell so much to the viewer; it can tell things you can not describe. Because the people in the movie are so important, we need them a lot which is difficult to organise. At the beginning of the filming we wanted to use some people to act in our movie outside the class. We realized that it would be difficult to meet up with them and film with them because we are always very busy in school. That is why we chose people from the class. We started filming with Vidur who is in our class but in a different group. We then realized that even this would be not very efficient, because if we choose people from different groups, they always have to interrupt their work to come filming with us. We didn’t want them to do that because they have to do their own product as well, so we ended up with James and Simon starring in the two most important parts in the movie.

We never took everyone out to come filming with us if not necessary. For example, if we need more shots from James in the Bar, James and someone else can go out and film it, the third person can work on other things in the classroom. That allowed us to work very efficiently, no one never just stood there and had nothing to do. This is what saved time for us, in the real media business this is important as well, it saves a lot of money for the production companies, and in the media business everything is about money.

How did you manage actors, locations, costumes and props? Remember that deciding NOT to use a particular strategy [e.g. not to use any props] is also a creative decision.
As the most convenient time for us to film our product was during media lessons, we chose various locations on the school campus to use as locations in our film which mean that they were close and easy to access. The fact that the media studies lessons we attend are around the same time each day was also convenient for us as each time we filmed it was the right time of day. The weather where we live - in the north of Scotland - is often overcast or raining but we wanted the shots to be filmed on a sunny day. This meant that we could only film the scenes which were outside on days where the weather was good which was annoying and challenging at times. The shots we filmed inside were easy to create as we could control the lighting, the weather didn’t matter and we could make sure that nobody else interrupted the scenes. When filming outside, we had to always return to the same section of road to get our footage so that the two characters who were outside appeared in the same place in each shot. Using the school road was inconvenient because during the day it can be quite busy so we continuously had to stop and start filming when cars drove past.

We chose the shirts, jackets, ties, sunglasses and the mobile telephones we used for the actors before we began filming. We also decided which lessons we would use for filming previously so whoever owned costumes or props could bring them to the next lesson. This allowed for us to know what was needed for each lesson depending on what shots we intended to film. As all of the costumes and props were owned by either the actor or group members we always had what we needed at the right time.

How did storyboarding and creating a shooting script work in practice? Did you make creative decisions to depart from the original plan? For what reasons and with what outcomes?
We had already done a storyboard for our preliminary task and so we were aware of the concept behind this when it came time to doing one for our main task. We planned out the storyline for our main task first and putting it down on a storyboard gave us a clearer picture of what it would look like and also it meant we could plan out the different shots we were going to use. When it came to going out and filming we were organised and aware of what we wanted to accomplish and how we were going to do it.

However when it came to going out and filming what we had planned on our storyboard, we realised that we would have to make some readjustments. This was due to the fact that we realised we could get better and more interesting shots from the situation and environment we were in. Looking back at the changes we made we can see that it was definitely the right decision. Our film is of a higher quality with a wider range of shots and camera angles and it makes you stayed interested in it for the whole two minutes.

Although time management may seem a less exciting aspect of the creative media practice, it is possibly the most important – how did you manage your time, and with what success?
Our time management improved greatly over the course of the creation of our product. At the beginning the task as a whole seemed very daunting to us but as we began allocating small tasks to each group member the workload became more manageable. We found time management in filming quite hard because we had set deadlines for our group and on occasion were unable to meet them. This is because we would go out filming during some lessons and when we returned and uploaded what we’d filmed; the shots weren’t what we had wanted them to be for some reason or another. This seemed like a problem at the time but turned out to be of advantage to us as we ended up using some of the shots to improve scenes in which did not have enough.

It was also hard to use our time effectively during the stage in which we were editing our film. This was because we could only have one person editing the film at once because only one computer had all of our work on it. We were able to get all of the editing done on time and to a high standard but while one person was editing, the others did not have enough work to do to fill up the time that we had. This meant that one or both of the other team members were left to write small sections on the blog or complete short simple tasks. If we could repeat the whole production process we would try and make it possible for two people to be editing at once so we were all constantly being challenged.

Creative Tools:
How did digital technology enable you to develop creatively and are there examples of the technology obstructing or preventing your creative flow?
The digital technology we used for the production of our film helped show our different ideas from the planning stage. Using Photoshop to make our titles helped us to convey our genre to our target audience and give across a cool, slick production company logo as well as interesting and effective titles. Premiere Elements allowed us to edit all of the shots we had filmed and create meaning through our film. Using the program we were able to use fast or slow editing at different times to create a feeling of mystery and intrigue and this helped show the audience what genre we were aiming at. Using Premiere Elements also meant that we were able to cut the bad shots we had filmed so that we could showcase our best work.

Having said that, we did have some ideas that were blocked by the digital technology we were using. Premiere Elements would not let us edit to the nearest frame as it is not as advanced as we would hope. This meant that some scenes are not as effective as we would like them to be but we are confident that we have done the best we could with the resources available to us.

Thinking About Audience – making meaning:
How did you respond to the initial brief with the audience in mind?
When we got the initial brief, which was to make a two minute opening of a film, we knew we would have to make it stand out and make it look interesting for the entire time. To do this we chose our genre based on this principle. The genre we chose was Crime and Mystery as the audience who most likes this is younger people. We wanted to make the opening something that would relate to this audience and show them that it was aimed at their age group. With the audience in mind we chose to have many different shots and faster editing so as they didn’t get bored and walk away. We needed to make it so that when the audience watched it they thought wow!

How did your analysis and research into the type of film you selected impact on the creative process in pre-production?
The research actually had an absolute significant impact on our movie. At the beginning, when we first sat together in our group, we all wanted to do a different genre. We started researching in all of them and tried to narrow it down. What will be good for us to do? At the beginning, no one of us expected to do something in the action genre, as we thought that we need action to do that. When we watched the openings of the Oceans, of 21 and all the other movies we actually realized that many of their openings are slow. The action builds up further in the movie. When we watched the series Hustle, we saw a lot of phones in there. We didn’t copy Hustle in that sense, as we have still a lot of bits in our movie which we invented, but Hustle made us feeling confident about doing our idea, so we ended up doing it. Without the research we might have done something completely different, it was very important that we did it.

In filming and editing, how did you ensure that the meaning would be apparent to the audience? What creative decisions did you make in planning, rehearsing, filming and editing that were influenced by your sense of the audience and possible layers of interpretation?
If the audience does not understand what we try to say in the movie, they do not enjoy it and to not respond positively to it. It is essential that they understand it and we focussed on it a lot. If we finished one version of the film we always made people who haven’t seen it before watch that version and we asked them to explain the storyline to me. If they understand it, it is good. The worst comment you can get is: “I don’t really understand what it is about.” With this process, asking people again and again to watch the movie, we ensured that the message would come through.
During the planning process we decided that the way the characters act and talk is very important. They are telling the storyline and we decided that we want to ensure their right appearance.
When we filmed the movie, we always had several different ideas about how we want to present something in the movie. Their appearance is very important. We decided that we want them to wear smart clothes as we want them to appear rich and cool. But also the details, that they are not calling each other with any phone but with an iPhone, was also important to us as we think it is a status symbol.
“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” The music is the first thing which comes up as sound after the production logos. We took our time and looked very carefully for the music, because the first impression is so important.

How did the audience respond when you trialled aspects of your film? Are there a variety of possible interpretations of your opening sequence that will depend on the cultural situation of the viewer?
Throughout the production of our film we would ask our target audience to have a look at what we’d done and to tell us what they thought. As our target audience is people over the age of 15 we were able to ask our classmates to tell us what they thought. The audience always responded well to what we’d done but were always giving us constructive criticism which was helpful for us to create the most effective product possible.
We made sure that our genre and the representations of social groups which were present in our film were definitive so that everyone who was able to watch our film had a similar interpretation. The members of our class are all from different countries and cultures and each of them picked up on the type of film we were trying to create.

( Gabi, James & Simon )

A Diamond's Glimmer (The final movie)

After editing the voice over again, changing the titles and changing a bad shot, we finished the next version of our product. To make the film better, we need feedback from the target audience. The audience we try to adress are young people, so we will ask them to give feedback. So if you comment, please put your age next to your name, thank you!