Evaluation

Candidates will evaluate their work electronically.
This MUST contain an element of audience feedback and may be either integrated with the presentation of the research and planning material or may be presented separately.

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

My media product uses various conventions of real media products such as the fact that the introduction starts and ends in the same scene and explains how the character got to this state within the middle of the introduction. This is similar to other thrillers such as saw 3 in the way that a character is seen at the beginning, trapped or locked up before the film reveals how they got there. My media product also conveys a certain mood due to the fact it is in monochrome/black and white, this was partly done due to the poor lighting we had but also to obtain a dark eerie feel to the film. I also think that the music we used is similar to real films in the way that it creates a similar atmosphere to that of other scary films. Scary and tense music often has a repeated rhythm either in the background or as the main tune. This sometimes gets faster as well, making you think that something is creeping up on you or getting nearer. So the atmosphere created in our film from the background music is tense and scary. The titles in our film introduction are also used in the way real media products use them. The opening credits are both simple and successful with a plain text appearing throughout our introduction, ending effectively with the main title of the film ‘The Redemption’. The opening credits are similar to that of a real media film because they include directors, actors, editors etc.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In my media product, Amy and I have represented particular social groups through the use of clothing and acting. We only have two characters in our film introduction: a ‘baddie’ and a ‘goodie’ with clear evidence of who is who by the fact that the baddie is the kidnapper. This is shown by the fact he is wearing all black, with his hood up, stereotypically showing he is young and perhaps being in a gang or coming from a working class background. He acts suspicious spying and creeping around to exaggerate the social group he is representing. In contrast the other character that is getting kidnapped is dressed in smart clothes with high heeled shoes and drives a nice car thus showing that she may have a decent job earning a fair amount of money therefore setting her in a higher class to that of the kidnapper. These social groups I think are well represented in my film introduction as it is obvious what role the characters are playing, being an innocent character or one with bad intensions.

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

My media is more mainstream as it’s following the idea of many other films of its genre and putting a slight twist on it. The kind of media institution to distribute it would most likely be Universal or Fox. I think this because of the audience the product is aimed at, which is a wide one. There are references to real life and any audience would understand it causing it to be very universal. It wouldn’t be appreciated as much by audiences who enjoy a lot of violence and action as I think it’s a lot about the storyline conveying a message instead of action and fighting. I think these kind of institutions would be more drawn to my product because of its viewing durability and the wide audience it’s aimed at.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product? 

The audience I was aiming for were people who like a dark storyline but also a good bit of action. ‘Ransom’ and ‘Saw 3’ were my main influences when bringing ideas to the table for the storyboard and script. My kind of audience would be mature but younger than 40 because some of the content would probably not appeal to the older viewers. I expect that teenagers (over the certificate age of 15) to be the main audience for my media product.

5. How did you attract/address your audience? 

We tried to attract the audience with the kind of characters we might face in real life. A young person is depicted in the film and is really only applicable to a mature but younger audience. The main female character is young and pretty, perhaps being a role model for viewers and therefore causing them to feel sympathy when she is kidnapped, wanting them to continue watching and see what happens.

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

I have learnt a lot about different processes involved during my time working on my media product, mostly the importance of planning and constructive use of time. If I could change something about my media product it would be how I spent my time working on it. Things I liked about my media product was the production itself. I enjoy greatly the filming process and the editing sequences. I have also gained a lot of knowledge about equipment used during production and editing and similarly how they are used. 

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

Compared to the preliminary task, my full product has improved by the use of camera angles and editing, the cuts make sense in our final product and there are more cuts used keeping the continuity.  I learned a lot about time keeping and how strict you have to be on yourself if you want to succeed in making a successful product also about the different equipment involved which I believed helped a lot in the production of our main item. I also now have a good knowledge on how to use the editing software. Whilst organizing the acting I learnt that patience is the key as sometimes the actors are prone to laughing during the more serious scenes. You also have to learn to listen in order to progress keeping in mind everyone else’s ideas and suggestions whilst producing and editing so that it is satisfactory for them as well. 

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construction

During the construction of my film introduction Amy and I started by following our original storyboard. This proved to be successful as we included many shots in our storyboard which was thoroughly planned out allowing the filming to be easier as we knew the sequence of each shot. We began filming in Gas Place car-park which we chose to film the main body of our introduction. We filmed at night because we planned to set our film when it was dark allowing shadows to hide the kidnapper so it scarier, but we encountered a few problems when it came to editing as the shots were too dark, it was unclear what was happening due to poor lighting. As a result of this we then organised a second filming in the day-time to ensure the lighting was correct. This proved to be a lot easier as the footage and action was clear and therefore successful. Doing this meant that we needed to edit the shots in After Effects into ‘night mode’ to give the audience the impression that the filming took place at night.
For all of our scenes we managed to steady the camera well meaning there was no camera shake allowing for a good quality film. However there was a problem with one shot in particular whilst filming the kidnapping. We found it relatively difficult to produce a tracking shot without professional equipment. This shot consists of the woman and the kidnapper (secretly following her) walking beside a random car, then the woman drops her keys and the kidnapper grabs her, covering her mouth. At this point the camera rotates tracking around the car to block the characters so the audience don’t see the action of the kidnapping. The camera continues to rotate around the car returning to allow the place where the characters were standing to be in view, but they are gone. This gives the audience the impression that the woman has been taken away by this man. Our first attempt of this shot failed as we tried filming by hand and moving around the car, but this was shaky and the plot became unclear.
As a result of this unsuccessful attempt of a tracking shot, we arranged to meet again and film using my moped as a base for the camera to sit on so we could push the camera on the bike around the car hoping it would shoot it smoothly as we now had wheels. But again this was unsuccessful as the pushing was not as easy as we thought and the level of the camera was too low. Finally we decided to try holding the camera in a car filming out the window whilst someone drove the car smoothly and slowly around the action. We did this twice for accuracy and when we came to edit it, it turned out to be a great shot which looked effective and worked steadily when rotating this tracking shot.
During this filming in the car-park we kept the same sequence of shots throughout all our filming which was:
Woman turning off the car and opening the door.
Stepping out of the car.
Shutting the door and walking away.
Kidnapper comes along behind her as she walks, following her.
Woman drops her keys and kidnapper puts his hand over her mouth.
These shots were filmed at different angles and levels each time so when we edited the footage, we were able to choose and cut the shots applicably. This was a simple sequence making it easy to follow and repeat accordingly. This enabled us to have the freedom to chose when editing, which shots looked better as long, medium or close because we had many for each.
After shooting our car-park scene, we then went to a garage and filmed the rest. These shots included:
An extreme close-up of the woman’s eyes.
A close-up shot of her face, showing she has been beaten up.
A medium shot of the woman lying on the floor with the kidnapper watching her with a weapon in hand.
A mid shot of the kidnapper’s feet, slowly walking towards her.
Another shot similar to number 3 but the kidnapper is closer to her.
A close-up of his hand, holding the weapon.
A mid shot of the woman’s face as the weapon is dropped in front of her.
This was the scene of which the kidnapper took the woman to and beat her with the weapon he holds. After shooting both scenes and making sure we had enough camera angles we then edited our footage. After watching through each clip from the different angles, we cut the clips appropriately to ensure the sequence made sense. The introduction starts with the state of the woman after she was beaten up (a black and white close up of her eyes and face) before going into the details of her kidnapping in the car park, to make sure the film made sense, we edited the garage scene at the end into black and white to determine that it is the same scene as the beginning. We decided to use the music selectively with the film. After hearing scary background music in other films, we decided that the music used in Prison Break would work best because it gradually becomes tenser as the pace increases working well with the climax of the kidnapping.
Using After Effects we decided to spread the opening credits out across the shots as the characters came into set helping reveal the identity slowly. The film introduction opens with a black screen with white writing in the middle of a Chinese proverb like that in the film Kill Bill. The directors’ names then appear (Amy Mickhael and Katie Freeman) with the actress’s distressed heavy breathing in the background to create tension causing the audience to wonder what’s happening. Then as the footage unfolds showing the characters, their names appear in white font placed in areas that don’t hide anything in the shot.

Our film is now complete after planning, filming and editing we have created an effective film introduction following our brief and learning about various technologies throughout the process.

Filming - in the garage

After shooting our car-park scene, we then went to a garage and filmed the rest. These shots included:

1. An extreme close-up of the woman’s eyes.


2. A close-up shot of her face, showing she has been beaten up.


3. A medium shot of the woman lying on the floor with the kidnapper watching her with a weapon in hand.


4. A mid shot of the kidnapper’s feet, slowly walking towards her.


5. Another shot similar to number 3 but the kidnapper is closer to her.


6. A close-up of his hand, holding the weapon.


7. A mid shot of the woman’s face as the weapon is dropped in front of her.

This was the scene of which the kidnapper took the woman to and beat her with the weapon he holds.

Filming - in the carpark

During this filming in the car-park we kept the same sequence of shots throughout all our filming which was:

1. Woman turning off the car and opening the door.


2. Stepping out of the car.


3. Shutting the door and walking away.


4. Kidnapper comes along behind her as she walks, following her.


5. Woman drops her keys and kidnapper puts his hand over her mouth.

These shots were filmed at different angles and levels each time so when we edited the footage, we were able to choose and cut the shots applicably. This was a simple sequence making it easy to follow and repeat accordingly.

For all of our scenes we managed to steady the camera well meaning there was no camera shake allowing for a good quality film. However there was a problem with one shot in particular whilst filming the kidnapping. We found it relatively difficult to produce a tracking shot without professional equipment. This shot consists of the woman and the kidnapper (secretly following her) walking beside a random car, then the woman drops her keys and the kidnapper grabs her, covering her mouth. At this point the camera rotates tracking around the car to block the characters so the audience don’t see the action of the kidnapping. The camera continues to rotate around the car returning to allow the place where the characters were standing to be in view, but they are gone. This gives the audience the impression that the woman has been taken away by this man. Our first attempt of this shot failed as we tried filming by hand and moving around the car, but this was shaky and the plot became unclear.
As a result of this unsuccessful attempt of a tracking shot, we arranged to meet again and film using my moped as a base for the camera to sit on so we could push the camera on the bike around the car hoping it would shoot it smoothly as we now had wheels. But again this was unsuccessful as the pushing was not as easy as we thought and the level of the camera was too low. Finally we decided to try holding the camera in a car filming out the window whilst someone drove the car smoothly and slowly around the action. We did this twice for accuracy and when we came to edit it, it turned out to be a great shot which looked effective and worked steadily when rotating this tracking shot.

Opening credits

Watching various film introductions it is clear that most opening credits contain these titles:

• '...Presents...'


• 'A Production By...'


• 'A Film By...'.


• After this usually comes the actor names (about 10).


• Then the names of the production crew.

There were around 14 different categories within the production crew (Co-Producers...Executive Producers...) and within these sections there may be more than one person that has worked in this section.

In the production crew section there were categories like:

• 'Music Director'


• 'Film Editor'


• 'Producers'


• 'Directors'

Actors and Props

Actors

Anna Siodlak

Marc Wrigglesworth

Props

We will be using car keys as a prop, so when Anna drops them and bends down to pick them up, Marc is able to kidnapp her. We will also be using a weapon, maybe an axe in the second scene when Marc has taken her back to a garage to beat her up.

Filming

This is me filming at our location in the carpark

This is the car we used for our female character to get out of.