Evaluation Question 7

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Evaluation Question 6

Evaluation Question 5

Question 5

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 7

Evaluation Question 6

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Evaluation Question 5

Evaluation Question 5

Evaluation Question 4

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Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

Media Evaluation Question 7

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

Our Preliminary task was a Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she?he exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. In this task we had to demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and 180-degree rule.

Whereas our Main Task was to create the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

While the preliminary task was completely different to the main task, I would say I have used some of the skills I learnt from that to help create our final film. Before taking A level Media Studies I had very little knowledge on the subject and little knowledge on how to create a media product.

But in doing the preliminary task I learnt what match on action is, which we used when opening doors in the final task and throwing folders off the desk. This makes the film run smoother and makes sense.

I learnt what 180 degree line was which was used throughout both tasks. This ensures that the shots do not get reversed as the film progresses. We used this rule because it helps to make our film makes sense and flow in a more understandable order.

Also I learnt what shot reverse shot entailed. This is vital when filming conversations as it involves filming shots that look like one character is facing another. This makes conversations between characters believable and therefore makes the film more realistic.

Throughout the year I have learnt many things, which has helped me improve my skills. Looking back at the preliminary task, I feel that I have get better all round in terms of cinematography. But I have get especially better at sound bridges and lighting. In our final film we used many sound bridges. This is where a outgoing sound (either dialogue or sound effects) in one scene that continues over into a new image or shot. We have used these to good effect in our film in order to achieve good continuity and dramatic effect. Also I have got better at lighting. In the preliminary task, we did not focus on lighting at all, however in the final film we focused on getting the lighting perfect. We used a small lamp to get the lighting that we desired to get good dramatic effect.

While we have used the same methods to produce our film (180 degree line, shot reverse shot, match on action) we have altered them to create an effect. In our final film we have used low angle shots and high angle shots to show the personality of a character. Shepp Flanagan when on camera is seen by a low angle shot meaning he dominates the screen making him look powerful. Whereas the character Marcus Finn is shown through a high angle shot, making him look small and vulnerable.

Media Evaluation Question 6

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Media Evaluation Question 3

Media Evaluation Question 2

Media Evaluation Question 1

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

Before creating our two minute opening sequence, we conducted some research into existing films that we thought were similar to ours. One of the films that I looked at during this research was James Bond Casino Royale.

In this research we discovered that in action films there are a few things that occur in all films of this genre:

• Themes of death
• Strong and confident protagonists that the story follows
• Gunfighting
• Car Chases
• Fast paced editing
• Occasional Flashbacks (To show what has happened to a character and why they are doing what they are doing.)
• Plots of Death/Assassination/World Domination

The opening sequences in action films tend to be fairly slow and actionless. The opening being slow and steady helps the audience to understand the storyline quickly and prepare them for action to come.

By using forms and conventions in the way we do we want the audience to feel suspicious and intrigued as well as tension.

In our film ‘The Aggregator’ we have a non-linear narrative. This means that it doesn't follow the normal flow of time, it jumps forwards and backwards in time. We do this for the audiences benefit, the jumps in time help the audience to understand what is currently happening easier .In the two minutes of our film we introduce three character, two of which are important to the storyline (Jason Kable, Shepp Flanagan). However the audience will not be able to tell this as the storyline is not clear until later on in the film. Before the title flashes on the screen we see the less important character (Marcus Finn) get held at gunpoint. At which point the screen fades to black. This is an attempt to build tension, like many other action films do. An example of this is on James Bond Skyfall, Bond get shot and falls into a river at which point the starting titles come on to delay us from knowing what has happened.

Our film is an action/thriller film, although it is fairly hard to tell this from the footage that you see. An action film would be described as fast paced with combat , a thriller would be described as a film using tension and suspense. No action really takes place in our film other than a character being held at gunpoint at which point the screen fades to the title shot, which could be seen as an element of thriller and action. We planned to make the genre clearer as the film went on.

In an action film you would expect the editing to be fast paced which give the film a fast flow and keeps the audience guessing. We have purposely made the film fairly slow for an action film as it makes the start slow and steady helping the audience to understand the narrative and it prepares them for future action. This is a convention that most action films follow. Also from an action film you would expect combat meaning that more long shots/mid shots will be used to show punching etc. As our film doesn't contain much action (At the start) these shots aren't common, however in the part of the film with the only bit of recognisable ‘action’ a mid shot is used to show a gun being held to someone's head.

The sound of a film is important. It can help change the perspective of the audience. There are certain sounds you would expect from a action film. Firstly in terms of diegetic sound in an action film you would expect combat sound effects such as gun noises and punches.Secondly in terms of non-diegetic sound you would expect a slow, tense and serious soundtrack over conversation, to give the words an extra meaning but then a fast paced soundtrack over action to make the film appear to flow faster and make it rhythmic. We have followed this convention. When the characters are talking we have a slow violin soundtrack to make things tense but then a faster paced guitar and drums soundtrack when the action is taking place, this helps the audience to know what is going to happen before it actually does. While the title is on the screen, we hear a voice over from one of the characters and then a gunshot, which in this case is non-diegetic sound as you can't see the source of the sound. This makes the audience think that the character who owes the money is dead, but that could not necessarily be the case. This is done to keep the audience guessing and asking questions to make them want to watch on.

In our film, we focused on making sure the mise-en-scene was perfect. Mise-en-scene refers to the use of costumes, props and locations. These are the things that make your film look believable. We made sure our characters we dressed smart as you would expect from a loan shark and debtor, we surveyed many locations before picking the small room with a table and chairs to see which one was most suitable to be a loan sharks office. And we also brought in any props we needed like the cheque book and gun to ensure the story made sense. These are the things that you would expect from a typical action movie like James Bond.

                                                               

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For our titles we used the American Typewriter font. This font looks like it the font that you see from a old fashioned typewriter. This gives the film a vintage appearance. We were attempting to get this nostalgic feeling as our film could be likened to a gangster film, and this is something you would expect in a gangster film.

If you were to explain the iconography of the genre action you would say combat with guns and car chases. The two minutes of the film we produced there isn't much action, you could say it is unconventional. The only major convention we followed was the use of the gun. This was done to make the start fairly slow. We intended to return to the conventions of an action film later on once the audience has grasped the storyline, which would make the action more of a surprise and hard hitting.

Question Answers

Post Film Results

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aj7SoTd2N20UdFdwWldHT09XVUozVEdzT2VwdktoNHc&usp=sharing

Post Film

EVALUATION QUESTIONS Courtney Smith

Evaluation Question 1 ^

Q2 Evaluation Tumblr

Q3


Question 4 Evaluation

Q5 Evaluation Courtney Smith

Q6 Evaluation Courtney Smith

Question 7 Evaluation

For our preliminary exercise, we had to perform a continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom the character then exchanges a few lines of dialogue. This task demonstrated match on action, shot-reverse-shot and the 180 degree rule.

For our main task, we had to perform an opening sequence for a new fiction film with titles, to last a maximum of two minutes. This also demonstrated a range of different shots, including shot-reverse-shot and 180 degree rule.

From our preliminary exercise we learned about how to operate the cameras, how to set up tripods, we learned about 180 degree rule, shot reverse shot and match on action shots. From learning these we were able to transfer these skills we had learned and apply them to our two minute film.

Preliminary Exercise

 
                                                                                           Match on Action - Preliminary Exercise
 

 Shot Reverse Shot - Preliminary Exercise

 


Two Minute Film Opening
 Match on Action - Two Minute Film



 Shot Reverse Shot - Two Minute Film



These pictures show the progress between our preliminary exercise and our two minute film, we have improved and learned a lot and they have shown us how to successfully film using cameras, we have improved and shown our understanding of 180 degree line, shot reverse shot and match on action.

Preliminary Exercise

Final Film

Music and Sound for our film

http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/1080374/bluered

http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/199203/kursk

Treatment ( Full Film)

Treatment (Full Film)

Title: The Aggregator

Duration: 90 minutes (approx)

Audience:

The film that we are making is an action film that is based around a man who is a debt collector for a loan shark. On one of his jobs he is told to kill his brother. He decides against doing this and he and his brother try to escape the country to avoid being found and killed.

The audience we are aiming to attract is Males and Females aged 16-30. However we would expect a secondary audience of Male and Female 30-60. This is because the film is full of action, older teenagers tend to go watch films full of action. like this one. The film has themes of money problems and debts which would only really be understood by people 18 and over who have a full time job and understand the importance of money. This is why we are aiming our film at people 16-30. We're not targeting older audiences as they don't visit the cinemas as often as teens or young adults because they have other commitments or other interests. The target audience includes both males and females as the film doesn't have any features that makes it a just male or female film.

We would expect a slight Northern bias in terms of geographic audience. The film is made in the north so we would expect people to go and watch it because it is local. Also we would expect more people to hear about it in the northS

The film is an Action/Thriller film. People that are fans of Action film would be expected to watch the film. The film also has a slight gangster theme to it, so people who like gangster films like Gangster Squad might go to watch our film. The Debt Collector is a film very similar to ours, we would expect people who liked this film to come and watch it.

Our film features lots of strong and detailed violence but it does not dwell on the injury. The film also features strong language through out. It does not contain any sexual references/nudity or drug taking. However the film would be expected to have a BBFC certificate of 15.

Distributor: 
One possible distributor for our film is Momentum Pictures, who are one of the leading independent motion picture distributors in the UK and Ireland. Momentum have released films such as Insidious 1+2, The Woman In Black, The Kings Speech and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. In February 2011, Momentum Pictures won 8 BAFTA awards, more than any other UK distributor. This would be an ideal film distributor for us as it is a UK distributor and releases many independent films. 

Summery of story:

 This is a film about  man who works as a debt collector for a loan shark after previously owing him money.
The film starts with a man visiting the loan sharks office and begging him for money. The loan sharks says he can have the money but he wants it all back with interest in three months.
After four months the money hasn’t been paid, so the loan shark calls his debt collector to go and kill the man. He finds his place of work, confronts him and shoots him. After the debt collector has walked away, we see a man that has seen the action and dials a number on the phone.
As the debt collector carries on his work, he one day get a job from his boss to kill someone who hasn’t paid there debt for months. This person is his best friend. The police are becoming more suspicious of his actions after a handful of recent money related deaths. He has two options. He can kill his friend and finally pay of his debts to the loan shark, or he can collect his friend and run away to exile into another country and start a new life. But of he does this a bounty will be set on both of their heads.
He decides to run away. He needs to travel with he is friend to London to get a plane to the USA. On their travels they encounter many people trying to kill them and collect the hefty bounty that has been set on them. After surviving many attacks from bounty hunters, wounded, they arrive at the airport. But there is one man waiting there for them. With a gun to both of their heads, they surrender. A mysterious gun sound comes from the distance and the bullet hits the bounty hunter in the chest. The two quickly run inside the airport and board the plane.        

Suggested Elements:

The film is fairly action packed, with many scenes that will excite and entice the viewer. The start of the film is interesting. It gives the audience a feel for the film. It tell the audience about the story and about the characters as well as giving insights into what may happen in the future. The end is also a scene to look out for. The end is very tense and keeps the audience guessing. The film is unique, the story line is one that has not been done many times before, so it many be one that excite viewers. One thing to look out for in the film would be the car chase scenes. These scenes are very action packed and help to keep the audience interested.    

Treatment(2 mins)

Treatment (2 mins)

Title: The Aggregator 

Duration: 2 minutes

Audience: The film that we are making is an action film that is based around a man who is a debt collector for a loan shark. On one of his jobs he is told to kill his brother. He decides against doing this and he and his brother try to escape the country to avoid being found and killed.

The audience we are aiming to attract is Males and Females aged 16-30. However we would expect a secondary audience of Male and Female 30-60. This is because the film is full of action, older teenagers tend to go watch films full of action. like this one. The film has themes of money problems and debts which would only really be understood by people 18 and over who have a full time job and understand the importance of money. This is why we are aiming our film at people 16-30. We're not targeting older audiences as they don't visit the cinemas as often as teens or young adults because they have other commitments or other interests. The target audience includes both males and females as the film doesn't have any features that makes it a just male or female film.

We would expect a slight Northern bias in terms of geographic audience. The film is made in the north so we would expect people to go and watch it because it is local. Also we would expect more people to hear about it in the north.

The film is an Action/Thriller film. People that are fans of Action film would be expected to watch the film. The film also has a slight gangster theme to it, so people who like gangster films like Gangster Squad might go to watch our film. The Debt Collector is a film very similar to ours, we would expect people who liked this film to come and watch it.

Our film features lots of strong and detailed violence but it does not dwell on the injury. The film also features strong language through out. It does not contain any sexual references/nudity or drug taking. However the film would be expected to have a BBFC certificate of 15.

Distributor: 

One possible distributor for our film is Momentum Pictures, who are one of the leading independent motion picture distributors in the UK and Ireland. Momentum have released films such as Insidious 1+2, The Woman In Black, The Kings Speech and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. In February 2011, Momentum Pictures won 8 BAFTA awards, more than any other UK distributor. This would be an ideal film distributor for us as it is a UK distributor and releases many independent films. 

Summery of story: 

A man visits a loan shark to ask for some money to pay off some debts. He goes into the loan sharks office and asks him for £10,000. The loan sat behind his desk with his feet up asks some questions about why the man wants the money. Before the man can answer the loan shark decides he can have the money but he only has 3 months to pay the money back in full. The man say thank you and swiftly leaves, as he leaves the loan shark reminds him he only has 3 months to pay the money back. The screen fades to black and picture appears with the loan shark sat behind his desk talking to someone about the man who borrowed the money 3 months ago and hasn't yet paid. The camera switches to a man who is identified as the loans sharks debt collector, he asks the loan shark who the man is and where he works, the loan shark says 'take care of him'. The debt collector leaves and the screen fades to black. When the screen reappears we see the debt collector enter a work yard and walk around to find the man who owes the money. He finds him and tells him 'the loan shark sends his regards'. The man pleads for more time, but the debt collector tells him he knew the deal. The man tries to run away but the debt collector pulls out a gun and shoots him. The debt collector then walks away.

Suggested Element: 

In the first two minutes the film is fairly slow. There is not much action going on but there is a lot of talking. It is important to listen to the dialogue as it helps the audience to understand what is going on and also it helps the understand the rest of they story.  Towards the end of the two minutes the action starts. We see the man who asks for money get followed by the debt collector, who gets him in a dangerous position. This is the stand out scene from the start of the scene.

Title sequence storyboard

Title sequence storyboard:

Shot 1: James Bentley as 'Jason Kable'

Shot 2: Alex Barman as 'Marcus Finn'

Shot 3: Max Barker as 'Shep Flanagan'

Shot 4: Jason Kable threatens Marcus Finn at gunpoint 

*fade or cut to next shot*

Shot 5: Background screen with production title with background rock music and gun shot sound for effect.

Shot List

Location

Storyboard

Production Logo

A production logo is something that is in every film. The production logo is shown right at the start of the film before any footage is even shown. The production logo identifies the company that has produced the film which.

This is an example of a production logo. This is a very simplistic logo, it only consists of two words in two different colours, however this is very effective. The way the two colours are put together make the words look like they are a neon sign. The colours stand out really well and catch your attention, which is what is wanted when something is only being shown for a brief period. The text messes with your mind a bit which is one of the reasons as to why it catches your attention.

This is another example of a production logo. This logo is very simple, it only consists of text, however the text is organised and placed in a way that it looks 3D. It text look like it is stood up and creating a corner. This is an effective logo. It is simple, but it plays with your mind and catches your attention, which in turn makes you notice what the logo is showing.

This is also a production logo that I like. It does have quite a bit going on. It consists of text which states the production company name. This is positioned around an upside down and  right way up letter 'T'. The top of the letter 'T''s are made to look like film tape. This will help the audience to understand what the company does and is. This logo looks good and is well presented. While it does not stand out as much as the others it does catch your eye slightly because everything is coming off at funny angles and also the black stands out well on the white background.

This is the logo we have made to use at the start of the film.

This logo has a slight link to the film we are creating. Our films is based around a loan shark and his debt collector. A loan shark is someone who lends money to people and expects it back with interest. Money plays a big part in the job of a loan shark and therefore our film. Hence why we have chosen a dollar bill.

Location ideas

Our film is an action film and involves businessmen and men with important jobs, therefore an ideal location to film scenes in would be in an office. Local offices include the Digital Media Centre in Barnsley:

Using an office for a location shot is a good idea because it looks professional and is a great idea which suits the characters and fits in with the Action genre. It would be good to film here for a meeting between our characters and the location will probably look like this:

A good scene to film in this location would be to shoot a heated argument between the characters in the office and it should look something similar to this:

Prop and Costume

 A prop is a portable object other than furniture or costumes used on the set of a play or film. An example of a prop is a car or a gun. Props help to make a film look more realistic, this in turn make the film better to watch. In order to make our film look realistic and better to watch we will need to use props. The following are the props we will need for the opening two minutes for our film.

• Small Handgun
  
• Cowboy Hat
  
• Fedora Hat
  
• Table
  
• 2 Chairs
  
• Minimal Office Supplies
  
• Cheque Book
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Costume is also an important part of a film. The costume has a similar job as props. Costume is used to make the film more realistic and believable. Costume can also be used to tell the audiences about a character even though we haven't met them yet. This is done through stereotypes. If a person is dressed in jeans, checked shirt with a cowboy hat your own stereotypes would male you think that that person is a redneck. We have three characters in our film. We need to dress these characters in a way in which they look like what they are meant to look like so the audience believes they are that person, and so they believe the story more.

The Loan Shark character will be dressed in a burgundy suit with no tie. He will also wear a cowboy hat. This will show that he has money and is a confident dominant person.

The Debt Collector character will wear a suit and tie, with a fedora. This shows he is a smart character who takes his job seriously, but the Fedora hat, which is stereotypically associated with the Mafia. will show he is dangerous.

The last character is the man who is asking for money. He will wear smart clothes as he is trying to impress the loan shark and make a good impression so he will be given the money, The clothes he wears will give the impression that he is an office worker, who works hard for little money.