The document summarizes the student's media evaluation of their final piece, an action/thriller film. The student aimed to create a typical action flick genre piece with quick pacing and tension, though with a limited budget instead of large special effects. Sound effects and music were used to create atmosphere. Camera techniques included shot reverse shot dialogue and zooms on faces to show emotion. The intended audience is ages 15-50, attracted to the genre. Through the project, the student learned filmmaking skills like shooting, editing, and industry conventions as well as technological skills like using editing software.
2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? My final piece is conventional to the typical action/thriller movie genre, in that the storyline, is typical of what may be expected of this genre with the protagonist in this case being a secret agent , who fights to stop the enemy. I chose to do this, as wanted to create the typical enjoyable action flick, that had a quick energetic pace and created tension. However my film is different in some ways to the typical action blockbuster, in that the Hollywood action films are usually made with a huge budget, and full of special effects. My piece is different to this in that I was faced with the task of creating the same tense atmosphere with no budget at all, to do this, rather than use intense visual action, I focused mainly on using music, sound and sound effects to create the atmosphere. Referring back to the film ‘The Road” that I used for my research, that film creates a tense setting with the music used, in that film, when the characters are hiding, something as small as the sound of footsteps can put the viewer on edge.
3. Cont.. I selected the music for the opening scene as I felt that it was a tense sounding piece that was atmospheric and suited the scene very well. Other ways in which I used sound were the sound effects of the explosions and the battle noises such as gun shots and later on a siren. I felt this was necessary as it expressed to the audience the danger that the characters were faced with, and this was the best way to put this across, because, for obvious reasons I could show real explosions and/or battle scenes. Another sound I decided to use in my piece was the sound of my breath when I ran with the camera, initially I was going to take this sound out, but I later felt that it added a more humanistic feel to the scene and expressed a sense of fear and high adrenaline to the audience, as they gave better sense of what the characters were seeing. For the choice of costume, I choose to use average clothing that someone of that age group may wear, as I feel thatt it creates a more realistic setting, also it will make it easier for for audiences of that age easier to relate to the characters. I wanted to use simplistic bold text, much like the font used in the films the road and law abiding citizen, the films that I used for my research. I feel that It creates a sense of seriousness.
4. How does your media product represent particular social groups? The camera techniques I used when filming the piece are conventional in certain areas, such as the shot reverse shot technique which I used when filming some of the dialogue, this is a typical camera technique used in this situation. Also, another technique I used which is conventional, was the use of mid-shots sometimes, when I was filming the characters talking. However, I also used a few techniques that were a bit different, such as I used zooming in on the characters faces to show emotion at the point of realisation. Also I used shaky shots in the running scene, as I felt this use of unsteady shot was necessary at that point, as it made it more realistic and made the audience feel more involved. For the title sequence, I wanted to use a small amount of simple shots rather than trying to cram in every different type of shot possible, as I wanted the audience to focus more on the story and the characters, rather than being swamped in flamboyant camera work. I choose to walk down the corridors of the school, as I feel that instantly lets the viewer know where the film is going to be set. The characters are than introduced as the camera follows them walking through the school yard, and the sounds of their voices can be heard as they walk through the school and the camera slowly catches them up and turns to face them using a mid shot. This continuity of the two shots flowing into one another, I feel makes it more fluent.
5. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? I feel that my piece would be suited to be distributed in mainstream i.e. the cinema and then to DVD, as I feel that the genre and setting would pull in a broad audience that people of all ages could enjoy, I believe that a film of this style has the potential to be a blockbuster. however given the budget restrictions and therefore production values of the peice, it may be better suited to distribution by smaller/independant film companies or for distribution via links to tv film franchises i.e. wingnut films or film 4 etc. it may also be adapted to TVfor a series such as spooks or Ultimate Force. I can use Face book to help me check out my ideas and test my film clips.
6. Who would be the audience for your media product? My piece will target certain audiences due to conventions and themes used. Although it hard to accurately pinpoint, I believe that an audience between the ages of around 15-50 and a mainly male audience will be attracted by this film, as my aim was to create a stereotypical action/thriller movie that can be enjoyed by most. And I feel that the genre of the film will attract a large audience as an easily viewable, enjoyable action flick. However, it could be popular among younger audiences perhaps between the age of around 13-20 as the location of the film is significant to them and representative of their everyday life. Also the protagonist is around their age. I would the audience tobe implied by the certificiation which I would expect to be 15 as there may be disturbing violent scenes. If it was a TV series it would be shown later in the evening with a warning that certain scenes may contain violence.
7. How did you attract/address your audience? As described above the location would attract teenage viewers. The characters used reflect a particularly young, mainstream social group. Younger audiences can relate to this. I made sure that the meaning of my text was instatly apparent to the viewer,as the film begins with a blackscreen and text that gives the obvious impression, that the film is set in a school, and is an action/thriller movie. The overall audience would be attracted by the creation of suspense and intrigue in particular the dialogue which suggests something terrible has happened and danger is imminent. An audience that enjoys action thrillers will expect there to be lots of noisy scens, hence my explosion. They will be looking for the story to emeergefarily soon and often expect a hero or main character to appear early in the film. I believe that my film opening creates tension and intrigue thus leading the audience into wanting to solve the enigma.
8. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? To obtain the clips for my research from DVDs I used DVD shrink. To obtain soundc lips I downloaded music videos from youtube using save2pc and then converted them into audio mp3 files. I then used Audacity to edit the audio for the film. WINFF was used to convert files so that they were in a suitable format to post onto the blog. The blog was Wordpress and I had not used a blog before. I learnt how to post, upload and organise my work using categories. My evaluation was produced in PowerPoint and uploaded to slideshare to obtain feedback. Facebook and youtube were used to obtain feedback from my audience and discuss ideas with my friends and teacher. I used e-mail to arrange actors filming times etc. I have developed my technological skills quite considerably over the course of this project and intend to extend them further at A2 perhaps moving into printed media and web design.
9. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? Creating the preliminary task taught me to think about shooting film with effects where possible rather than adding them later. I also learnt about camera shots, distance and using the camera itself. including holding it steady, something I could still improve on. This project has allowed me to develop my skills, in story writing, filming and editing. I have previously had little experience of these. But this project has let me expand my knowledge of creating projects like this, and taught me about techniques and conventions used within this genre. I have increased my knowledge of the film industry and the process involved when creating films, and the programs used to edit video, sound and much more. My organisational skills have been tested and I have had to work to deadlines which is sometimes difficult when you are using actors.
