Evaluation Question 7

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?

At the start of this course we were set a preliminary task that involved us having to create, in groups, a shot film with whatever genre and storyline we wanted. The only criteria we had was that we had to ensure we included a match on action, a shot reverse shot, 180 degree rule, someone pulling up a chair and dialogue. This was different to our final media product as it is just a film opening and therefore does not need to tell a complete story.

Our film opening is very different to our preliminary task in many ways. One difference is that the genres are the complete opposite as our preliminary task was a rom-com whilst our final product was an action thriller. Another difference was that our final media product had detailed and realistic credits at the start like most real media films, whereas our preliminary task had basic credits that rolled at the end.  

When planning for our preliminary task we created a story board and shot list and had a basic idea of the storyline but did not do much else to ensure that it all worked smoothly. This is different to our final film for which we did a storyboard, shot list, title timeline, overall film plan, props and costume research and much more, all of which can be found on my blog.  This planning meant that our filming process ran as smoothly as possible compared to our preliminary task. The planning meant that we knew what shots we needed, the order of the scenes, the exact props and costumes we need and what order to edit our film in.

Compared to our preliminary task, our final film is a much better quality and standard as we were more organised and we had a better knowledge of the equipment through using our experience from our preliminary task to learn from our mistakes. The shots and camera positions for our final film are improved from our preliminary task as we learnt to use the equipment properly and knew about different shots and angles from our film opening remake so that we could experiment with them in our film. In both our films we used a tracking shot which in our preliminary task was very wobbly as the ground the dolly was on was not flat. Although we had this issue in our final film, it was nowhere near as bad and can barely be seen when watching our film opening. The lighting in our films is also improved as our preliminary task is the same brightness throughout which is not realistic e.g for the date scene in the evening compared to our final film which uses different shades of lighting to create the correct atmosphere.

Our editing skills have also improved from our preliminary task to our final film as we have had more time to experiment with IMovie and were also able to use what we learnt from our preliminary task and our film opening remake to editing our film to the best standard.  Our use of transitions sound and continuity have improved from our preliminary task as we though more about the type of film we were producing and made it look as much like a real film as possible.

After carrying out this task, I feel much more comfortable with the equipment and editing software as I am more informed on how to use it and through trial and error have learnt the best way to carry out tasks. I think that our final film is successful in matching the criteria of being a 2 minute or less film opening.

 

 

Evaluation Question 6

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/ address your audience?

As mentioned in my evaluation question 4, our target audience is both males and females aged 16 to 24 and our film certificate is a 15. Our films main cast is a male and female aged 20 and 23, this will attract our target audience as they are around the same age as the actors and therefore relate to them and feel more involved with the storyline.

In order for our film to appeal to our target audience, we made sure that it was certified at their age range and contained the action and thrills that would keep them hooked. When filming and editing our film, we made sure that a tense atmosphere was created within it, in order to attract our audience. We also looked at real media film of the same genre as ours in order to gather ideas and see what films were popular and why and what parts were not.

I carried out some audience research on a female aged 17, when asked what she liked about the film, she said " I like the storyline as its different to other film and I like the fact that the main character is a woman because  you don't often see that in action thriller films.". I then asked if after watch the opening, she would go and see the film if released, she replied " yes, I would go and see it as it look is interesting and I like the that the woman is the hero" These replies show that the use of a female as the protagonist will attract audiences (especially the female audience) as this is non-stereotypical and different to most other action films.

Our film also contains multiple generic conventions of an action thriller such as a knife and violence and tense music. These generic conventions will therefore attract audiences who like action thriller films, this is our target audience.

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 3

 

 

 

 

Evaluation Question 2

Evalution Question 1

 

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

 

All films have generic conventions that are associated with and specific to a genre, for example all Westerns use cowboy hats, six shooters, and horses and spurs to place them in their genre.

Our film has the generic conventions of an action thriller genre, as it contains violence with face pace action and intense, dramatic non-diegetic music. Our film opening also leaves the audience with an enigma code as they are unsure on what going on and are left wondering how the characters have got in to the situations we see in the film opening. As an action thriller, our film has many generic conventions similar to real media texts of the same genre and are film rarely challenges these.

 

Much like real media products of the same genre, our film uses conventions such as weapons like the knife used when Agent Thomas stabs the suited henchman after escaping. The storyline of our film also means that various weapon will be used within the rest of the film including guns, knives and fists. This is similar to other action thriller films that have these generic conventions in the media text for instance James Bond Skyfall which has knives as well as gun in both the opening sequence and throughout the film

 As well as the props, our film opening uses tense low pitch non- diegetic music which is another generic convention of an action thriller. This convention is often used in action thrillers to create a dramatic effect that keeps the audience in suspense about what is going to happen next such. Almost all media texts use both diegetic and non-diegetic sound and music to create an atmosphere for the product an example of this would by the action thriller The Bourne Supremacy which uses low pitch tense music in scenes such as the car chase. 

 

The font of our film titles is minimal yet dramatic which is shown as the title, The Escape, written in white and on a black background looks sharp and clear giving a professional and serious feeling to the film which then helps to indicate the thriller element to our film. Fonts like this are also used in other film of our genre such as Skyfall as shown below.

 

There are different camera shots and angles used within our film opening and in terms of action thrillers high and low angles are quite generic. Real media products with the same genre as our film often have generic conventions of high and low angled shots as they can be used to clearly show power or weakness which is a key feature in action films that often have a protagonist and antagonist.

Our film can be seen as challenging conventions as the main character and protagonist in our film is a woman as a pose the typical butch muscular male figure like Bruce Willis in Die Hard or Daniel Craig in James Bond. We chose to use a female as our protagonist because there aren’t many action thriller films that have the woman as the hero. One film that influenced us on our decision was SALT in which Angelina Jolie play the main character, who is a spy much like the main character in our film.

Our Final Film

My logo design for our institutional company

 

 

 

 

 

 My institutional production logo

 

Individual research on the institutional logos for mainstream and independent companies

Individual research on the institutional logos for mainstream and independent companies


Every production company has an institutional logo, the type of  institution that the company is then affect the look of their logos; this is due to things like budgets.

Independent companies such as Film4 or Warp films  tend to have less money than the big mainstream companies partially because they are usually British and so do not have as much funding as the mainstream American companies. Logos for independent companies are often quite basic, as shown in the images to the left. They are also generally just images that contain no movement or animations. One of the reason for these simplistic logos is that most independent companies don't have any where near as much money as mainstream companies so therefore they have less money to spend on creating big animated logos that are only really seen for about three seconds at the start of a film.

Mainstream companies tend to have more money meaning they and spend more on their logos, which shows as most have animations or movement in them. Mainstream logos also usually involve the whole scree rather than just an image on the screen like most independent film company logos. Mainstream logos also seem to use more colours and designs than independent logos and just look like more time has been spent on creating them as a pose to the independent institutional logos.

This research will help when designing my production company logo as it will allow my to design a logo suitable and appropriate for the type of institution we are.

The type of production company we want to be

The type of Production Company we want to be is an independent institution because there is less people for our ideas to go through so less changes will be made. We chose independent because we would like full control over the storylines of our films, how they are filmed and what actors we use. However, due to independent British film institutions not having high budgets compared to places like America, our films will be of a low budget and therefore not distributed to many countries or cinemas, therefore we would like American funding to help Penguin Productions use good technology and editing tools to create our film and make it appeal to our audience.

Research into films like our genre and how we will attract audiences

How to attract our audience.

Most generic conventions in action thrillers are some sort of fighting, chase and violence. As well as this, most have an enigma code which allows the audience to feel involved in the film as they don't know exactly what's going on and they have to work it out.  A mixture of these elements creates a tense and dramatic atmosphere which draws in audiences as they feel compelled to find out what's going on and what the films all about.


In order to consider how we will attract our audience, we did some research into existing films of the same genre to find out how they attracted their audiences. Using IMBD we found that the top seven action thrillers according to the US Box Office were:

The first two on the list are a sequel and a film related to a specific series of films. This could explain why they are top of list and attracted the highest audience figures based on ratings. If an original film does well and later has a sequel it is almost guaranteed to do well and succeed due to the involvement people feel they have within the film. As our film is not a sequel we have to consider a variety of ways in which we can attract the higher our audience.

Next on the list is Inception this is an action mystery sci-fi thriller that raised $293m at the US box office upon its release. The film stars multiple well-known actors including Leonardo di Caprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ellen Page and was direct by Christopher Nolan who also directed The Dark Knight Rises, which is first in the list above. The used of these big Hollywood names is another way films attract their audiences, because if people like the actors in the film and know their acting capabilities then they are more willing to see as they know it’s going to be good. However, our film is an independent film so therefore doesn’t have the big names but if we were to be mainstream this would be something we would consider when casting.

Timeline of titles from a film opening of our chosen genre

The images above show a title timeline from the James bond film Casino Royale which is of the same genre that we have chosen for our film opening. Casino royal is a an action thriller adventure much like our film although we are just mainly focusing on the action thriller aspects. Completing a title timeline of a film from the same genre as our film means that I can get an idea of the order and how the credits role in these types of film. This means that we can create an accurate and realistic timeline for our film opening that matches those of real film openings.

Research into my chosen genre

Research into my chosen genre

Action Thriller- An Action Thriller uses physical action to create suspense within a film. much like a traditional Action film, this sub-genre will often have continuous motion and action . These scenes will contribute to the overall sense of danger that the protagonist is facing. The thriller element of this genre means that  films are tense and often have enigma codes and twists within them.

Generic conventions in an action thriller include: Physical stunts, chases, fights, battles, races, blood, fast pace, Antagonist and Dramatic Music

Examples of  action-thriller films

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Why are we doing a remake?

We are doing a re-make of a film opening in order to get an idea of how the filming and editing of film openings work. Re-making a film opening which gives us experience and prepares us for when we make our own film opening. The re-make will allow us to see the content and how much narrative is involved in the first few minutes of a film so that we get an idea of what to put in our film opening to ensure that we don't put all the action in at the start. Doing a re-make of a film also means that we can look at when and where the titles appear on screen which helps us when planning our titles as it gives us an example of how they should look and match the genre and setting of the film.

The difference between independent and mainstream film opening

The difference between independent and mainstream film opening

Mainstream
. Usually big budget Hollywood block busters
. The content and storyline of the film are often applicable to a wide variety of audiences
. High budgets mean lots of technology can be used to create high impact films e.g. CGI, Performance capture and Technical products that help to create thing like explosions and fires.
. Usually star big a list actors and actresses as they appeal to the audience compared to someone they may not have heard of in an independent film.
. Big budgets also mean lot of money for promotion and advertising which mean ,mainstream film are highly commercialised compared to independent film




Independent
. Budgets are not as big, so less promotion and advertising and less technology used so films aren't as big
. Usually has up and coming stars that aren't very big or well known
. Often aimed at more niche markets so storylines are more biased to specific groups of people
. Produced by lesser known institutions or is a product of a smaller production company funded by the mainstream institutions

Jelly Baby Activity

 

 Above is a picture of the Jelly Baby activity we undertook during class. In this activity, we were given a pack of jelly babies some post it notes and a piece of paper with which we told to create our own film opening of a genre of our choice. We were able to use the jelly babies in order to represent people and objects as well as drawing on the post its. We carried out this activity so that we could experiment with genres and storylines. This activity helped us to use our imaginations and start to think about our own film opening so that we had some initial ideas when it comes to planning our film opening.

Post on different genres and how generic conventions are shown in film openings

Post on different genres and how generic conventions are shown in film openings

Genre- a style or category of art, music, or literature

Within media and storytelling, there are different types of genre that the media can be.  We have different genres so people can know what type of films they like and to know what type of films are the most popular. Genres of films help to give them identity, attract audiences and to sell the film.

The are three types of genre:

Major Genre: a dominant genre that is relatively obvious and easy to define or spot e.g. Horror, Western
Subgenre: A sub division that is very closely related to its major genre, subgenres define a specific major genre by refining it with an adjective e.g. Psychological Thriller, Spaghetti Western
Hybrid genre: a combination of two major genres that creates another type of film e.g., RomCom, Sci-Fi- horror

Generic conventions are similar features that occur in and define a genre e.g. spaceships in a science fiction film

Different genres and there generic conventions

Horror- Blood, Low key lighting , Knives, Jump scares

Thriller- Antagonist, Dramatic Music, Fast Pace, Enigma Code











Action- Fighting, Explosions, Stunts, Car chase, Fast Pace, Weapons, Blood

















Comedy- Bright Colours, Up-beat Music, jokes




Romantic- Pink/Reds, Love, Marriage, Hearts, Happy endings

Certification

 

Film certification involves the classification and censorship of films.

      Classification is when access to material is restricted due to age.
      Censorship is the practice of cutting or preventing access to material.

 

There are different reasons as to why we have film classification, these are:

       Legal obligations this is to prevent material breaking the law 

     Protective, to protect audiences from items that may cause harm 

     Societal, this is to consider broader public opinion in mind with regard to language

 The BBFC, which stands for the British Board of Film Classification, was created in 1912 and is the company in charge of certifying British film. However local councils in charge of cinemas have the power to ignore their decisions and can pick the classification that they believe is appropriate for the film. In 1984 a new law regarding The Video Recording Act, was passed saying that the BBFC is in charge of classifying all videos for home use.  When classifying, the BBFC has to note any dangerous or criminal activities on a video or DVD.

 The BBFC works on several major principles in determining the age rating of a given work:

   Whether the material is in conflict with the law, or has been created through the commission of a criminal offence

   Whether the material, either on its own, or in combination with other content of a similar nature, may cause any physical or psychological harm at the age rating concerned.

   The overall tone of a work may also affect the final decision, if the work has a generally dark or unsettling tone that may disturb the audience at that level, then it may receive a more restrictive rating.

 The main age rating issues that need to be taken into account include:

     
        Violence, Sex, Sexual Violence, Drugs, Horror, Imitable Behaviour, Discrimination, Language

 Knowing about film certification will help us when creating our film opening as it will help us when decide what age our film is suitable for. It will allow us to know what we can and cannot include in our film opening depending on the certification we chose for our film. Having knowledge on certification will also help going to watch a film as through using the certification I will be able to tell what will be included in the film and to what extent.

 

Age Ratings You Trust

      

 

 

 

 

 

                           Suitable for all

     

 

 

 

 

 

                      Parental guidance

      

 

 

 

 

                       Cinema release suitable for 12 years and over

      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                       Video release suitable for 12 years and over

      

 

 

 

 

                          Suitable only for 15 years and over

      

 

 

 

 

 

                       Suitable only for adults

      

 

 

 

 

 

                   Adult works for licensed premises only

Opening Titles Timelines

Below are three title timelines of existing film openings. I wrote out these title timelines in order to learn the set up, order and timing of the different titles that occur in film openings. Carrying out this task meant that I learnt how credits/ titles were positioned and the basic order of which they ran. This allowed me to gather an idea four our own film opening  of how our titles would be placed, the order in which they would run and the timings for each title.  Being able to create an accurate title sequence means that our film opening titles will be realistic to films that already exist.

 

Student film analysis

The genre of this student film, although not immediately obvious is in my opinion an action film. This is show through the use of generic conventions like the gun and the chase element of the film opening. The use of low key lighting and low pitch tense music also backs up this idea as theses are all the generic conventions of an action film. The lack of diegetic sound in this film opening creates an enigma code as we as an audience don't know what is going on and are left to work it out for ourselves, this aspect of the film is also a generic convention of a thriller suggesting this film could be a thriller or even an action thriller.

The characters we see in this film opening are two men in suits and a woman in smart clothing this connotes a sense of professionalism and class leading us to believe this is a job for the men with guns e.g Spy or assassin. we don't see much of the woman in the film opening but from what we do see of her it looks as if we are seeing flashbacks of her initially hiding before being found and killed. This can  seen as stereotypical as the woman is often seen as the damsel in distress and is usually the one in trouble getting saved by the protagonist male figure. Although the characters individually are easy to describe, in relation to the story line , it is a little bit unclear on who out of the two men is the protagonist and who is the antagonist.

The narrative of this film seems to be violence, revenge and crime. This is shown through the use of the guns which suggests that there is going to be violence throughout the film which then leads to the idea of crime as the involvement of weapons within films, usually means that a crime has been or is going to be committed.  The scene with the woman have been edited to look like flash back and in the last one we see, she is lying on ground with one of the suited men standing above her leading us to believe she is dead. The interruptions during the film opening of these flash backs suggests that the other suited man is after revenge for the woman's murder.

The atmosphere in this film opening is quite tense as we are unsure on what is going on and there is no diegetic sound o help us create an idea, just the music in the background which creates a tense mysterious atmosphere.  This is also backed by the dark lighting and run down empty buildings that are seen in the film. The empty building also make it hard for us to figure out the setting of the film as their is not much to look at and nothing that suggest they are anywhere  iconic or well known. This could be part of the film as a way of making it look mysterious and creating the enigma code that it creates.

The titles in this film opening are quite basic and are in white and red. The red could connote bloods which could be foreshadowing what to expect in the rest of the film. Apart from this, the titles don't reveal much about the film as it is a simple text so therefore does not have conventions of a specific genre. One issue with the titles is that the actual film title occurs at the end of the film opening, this is unrealistic as most film titles appear within a minute of the film starting.

Skyfall Film Opening Analysis

The genre of this film opening although not obvious from the start, is easily recognisable when we see a cardboard cut-out target of Daniel Craig with a shot wound and blood coming from the shoulder. Later on in the opening, we also see guns and knives falling from the sky followed by a tracking shot through what looks like a graveyard. These generic conventions help us to conclude that this film is of an action drama genre. Dark colours and low key lighting are also used a lot in the opening which helps to connote the idea that this is mystery action drama.  Sections of fast pace movement also connote the action and adventure that this film might entail.

Throughout the opening sequence we see a glimpse of a few of the characters in the film but not enough to examine them in detail. First of all we see a smartly dressed man in a suit sinking with blood on his shirt. The suit connotes a sense of professionalism while the blood creates the idea that he’s been harmed suggesting he has enemies.  As he sink, we see a female hand grab his and drag him down through the sand shortly after we see a target board of the man with blood coming from the shoulder of which we zoom in to a bullet wound showing that he has been shot.  However later in the opening we see the same man stood up and shooting his shadow this suggest that he may be scared of himself or can't trust anyone around him. The last shadow we se then turs into a silhouette of a man pointing a gun at the suited man after which the shot change to a bullet holes that the camera goes through. Also in this opening sequence we see a brief shot of the male gaze theory (Laura Mulvey) of a silhouette of a woman from head to toe which connotes the feeling of mystery and darkness.

The narrative of this film is quite clearly fighting, death and destruction this is shown in the opening almost instantly and throughout with the constant appearance of blood and guns and bullet holes. As well as this part of the opening has guns and knives falling from the sky followed by a dark misty graveyard scene this automatically connotes death.  The idea of death is also highlight later in the opening when the red blood like liquid/smoke forms the shape of a skull which is a prominent connotation for death.  The fire that occurs at various times in the opening connotes a sense of danger and destruction. At the start of the opening a woman’s hand appears to be pulling the man down suggesting that the woman is hypothetically dragging him down or causing his demise.

The atmosphere in this opening is tense and dramatic with a sense of mystery.  The dark colours and slow pace help to connote this type of atmosphere as well as the blood and guns which creates a tension as they suggest someone is going to get shot but we don’t know who.

The sound also helps to create the tense atmosphere as the theme song that plays during the opening has a low pitch and is quite slow which creates a dark mysterious feel to the opening.  The theme song that plays (Skyfall by Adele) also fits with what’s on screen as the words match the action. For example at the start of the opening we see the man sinking to the bottom of the ocean which then begins to fall away, during this, the words of the song say “ This is the end, hold your breath and count to ten, feel the earth move and then… ”

The titles in this opening sequence are quite simple, in a basic white text; this doesn’t reveal much to us about the film but does show the titles clearly and sharply.  The use of the simplistic titles means that they stand out because there is so much going in the opening in terms of imagery that they don’t need to be big and dramatic titles to show up.

The setting of the film, at the start of the opening, is not very apparent but as the camera is always moving forward it suggests that the film is not set all in one place. However at one point in the opening, we see some Chinese dragons which gives us the idea that the film could be set of have parts set in china.