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?

For the preliminary task we were asked to film someone walking down a corridor towards a door, a close up of the hand opening the door, them coming into the room from the other side, a conversation between two people and then one walking out. We edited this into a short clip. During the preliminary task we learnt many things such as:

• Shot/reverse shot - to do this we learnt that you have to film the whole conversation with the camera facing at person A and then the same with the camera facing person B, and then chop it up in editing to make it run smoothly.
• 180 degree rule - when doing a shot/ reverse shot we learnt that you mustn't cross the line. If you are filming person A over person B's left shoulder, when filming person B over person A's shoulder you must stay on the same side as when filming person A. If you were to cross the line then it wouldn't look right and would look like person A and B were stood next to each other.
• Match on action - when the camera changes shot e.g. person walking up to the door and then cutting to a close up of the hand opening the door you need to make sure that this runs smoothly and doesn't jump. We learnt that you need to consider match on action before editing, you need to make sure that the person in shot is using the same hand to open the door in both shots otherwise you have wasted time and need to go out and film again.

How did these help with your main production?

Learning to do this early before we started filming our production helped because it made us aware of what mistakes could be made. The shot/ reverse shot helped us because we have a few in our production but rather than having a conversation between our two characters. they were starring at each other intensely. Learning about the match on action helped us think more carefully about the different shots and make sure that when we edited it would all run smoothly. The 180 degree rule helped us make sure that our shot/ reverse shot looked right.

What was easy/hard during the preliminary task? 
I thought the filming was quite easy to do and wasn't hard to get the shots, the hardest thing was to edit. I had never used the software before and thought it was very difficult to get used to, I had to ask for help quite a lot but got it done eventually.

Research and Planning
For the preliminary task we didn't have to do a lot of research and planning, we drew up a storyboard so we could see what it would look like before we did it, and also so we had a better idea of what we had to do when we filmed. We had a short script that we followed which Mr Benzie made for us. For our main task we did this in much more detail, we researched about our target audience in detail looking at UK Film Council. We planned the mise-en-scene for our opening and also we wrote our own script, even though we didn't have a lot of talking in our opening. Our storyboard was a lot more in detail and longer, we made a shooting schedule so we knew when we were going to meet and film and a shot list so that we knew exactly what we needed to film and couldn't forget.

Construction
While doing the preliminary task we had help from a couple of A2 students, but when we did the main task we were filming on our own. After filming our preliminary task we edited for the first time, there wasn't a lot of tools used, we just did basic cuts and we added our name for the title. In the main task the editing was more complex, we had fades, flashes and there was more titles, we also had more shots to edit together.

Evaluation Question 6

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

During our project we went through 3 stages, planning and research, construction and now evaluation. Throughout these different stages I have used many different technologies.

Planning and research
Throughout the planning and research stage we used the computers along with google to research our genre, action. We also used data from the UK Film Council websites to find which particular group of people liked our genre so we could determine our target audience, we also looked on box office stats to see how popular action films are.

I use google very often so using this wasn't difficult. I have never used Blogger before so it was entirely new to me however it didn't take long to figure it out. I enjoy using Blogger as it is easier to type and use the computers rather than using pen and paper. Although computers are sometimes unreliable.

When researching different job roles for who was going to do what in our group, I gathered a lot of information from Wikipedia. It was easy to use as you just put what you want to find out in and there is a lot of information that comes. I have used Wikipedia a lot before so this wasn't new to me.

Construction

In the construction stages of my media product, I have learnt to use different equipment. The camera we used was a Panasonic NV-GS500, I have never used a digital camera for recording, only taking pictures. I found it difficult at first to use the camera as it was different to anything I had used before. Using the microphone was fairly easy but uncomfortable to hold in some ways. When we were editing we used Sony Vegas, at first I found this program impossible to use and very confusing but as time went by it became more easy and I finally got used to it. While editing I learnt how to fade from one shot to another and also how to use a flash. From the negotiation room scene to the flashbacks I used a flash to make it clear what was happening. 

Sony Vegas

After we had filmed we recorded some foley sounds with the help of Mr Corby, we used a voice recorder to record the bang at the end and heavy breathing. This was quite easy to do.

Evaluation 

During the evaluation stages I have used Blogger, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Powerpoint and Prezi. I have been used to using all this other than Prezi and Blogger. At the beginning, Prezi was very difficult, I couldn't understand how it worked and I tried to avoid using it but as I became more confident using it I found it more easy and now prefer to do a Prezi over a powerpoint. 

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

During the research and planning stage we interviewed a few people that are in our target audience. I interviewed my teacher on what he would like to see in an action film. We found that he wants to see:

• Explosions, guns, fights, martial arts etc
• Over the top action
• Foul language as and when appropriate

I also asked another member from my target audience on what they would like to see in an action film where I found that he wanted to see: Car chases, tension, danger and stunts in an action film.

This information helped us decide what we would need to put in our product to make our target audience be attracted to our film. This told us what elements we need in our film. We wanted an exciting opening to make our audience keep interested, we used enigma in our opening to keep them guessing. We decided to use good looking actors to stick to conventions of the characters in action films. 

To promote our film I would use social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter as a massive range of people use these sites and a large part of our target audience. Eventually I would promote our film on TV adverts, billboards, adverts in magazines and adverts before other films in cinemas.

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

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

The typical conventions of a film opening include:

• Production and studio logos                             
• Titles
• Establishing the location
• Meeting the main characters
• Enigma
• Music
• Non-diegetic and diegetic sounds 
• The genre made clear
• A variety of shots

The conventions of my genre, action include:

• A hero, damsel in distress, villain 
• Car/ vehicle chases
• Guns/weapons
• Fights and violence                                    
• Fast paced editing
• Fast music
• Some love scenes
• Drugs, in some films
• Titles will be bold and stand out

We used most of the conventions of film openings, we used the production logo at the very beginning and titles dipped in and out throughout the opening, the title of the film 'True To The Game' was at the very end. The title of the film is in a bold font and is in white on a black background, similar to the film 'This is England'

In the flashback scenes of our opening we showed the location of Market Rasen town but in the other scenes the audience isn't aware where the characters are, challenging conventions. This also helps build up enigma. Chaz and Lakeem are in a grotty room, giving a sense of unease and leaves the audience asking, where are they? What are they doing there? What have they done to be in that situation? 

We kept to the convention of meeting the main characters in our opening, we see two sides to the female character Chaz. The loving girlfriend side and the cheating, sneaky side to her. To show her loving side, we show her walking hand in hand with her boyfriend, Ray, and giving him a cuddle goodbye. For her bad side, we see her sneaky around waiting for Lakeem to arrive and then greets him with a passionate hug, and also when she is in the negotiation room she is wearing a dark jumper and has dark make up around her eyes. We also see two sides to Ray, when we first meet him he seems a very sweet caring character shown through his actions towards Chaz, he gives a respectful kiss on the cheek as he leaves. But when we meet him later on, we can tell he is no longer happy with his girl, he is a more angry and vengeful person as we see him walking towards the negotiation room. 

There is a lot of enigma in our film opening, the first thing the audience will probably ask is who is this girl? What is she doing? Where is she? The audience then realise that she has got a boyfriend and when she meets the other guy they audience will ask, what is she doing? Who is he? etc. The main enigma is in the negotiation room scenes, where the audience will ask what is going to happen to them? What is going to happen with the gun? Most film openings have enigma which leaves the audience wanting to see more and find out what happens to the characters.

In our film opening the only thing that indicates the genre is the use of the gun. In the negotiation room Chaz and Lakeem are passing back and forth the main prop in the whole opening, a gun, this is a convention of action films, however the gun isn't used in a typical way seen in other action films, in other action films, guns are used to fight of the enemy, like in 'Snatch'. In our opening the gun is used more carefully and in a way playful.

A lot of film openings have music involved somehow, in action films most of the time the music is fast paced and goes with the action happening in the scenes. In our film opening we have fast paced music which builds up, when Lakeem walks away from the gang there is a thud in the music which indicates he may not be so innocent.

When thinking about our initial ideas for our film opening, we got inspiration from Rihanna's music video 'Russian Roulette' this gave us ideas for the types of shots we were going to use. We wanted to have fast paced editing, we used a couple of shot reverse shots, close ups, etc.

Our film opening has challenged conventions of action films in some aspects, there are no chases, not much violence, you can't tell who is going to be the hero, villain etc. but we have used some conventions, we have a gun in our opening, a love story, there is fast music, some fast editing and the titles stand out.