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.
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:
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 )
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