Main Post 12.7 Question 7

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

Looking back at my preliminary task and the film i have produced with my group I think I can safely say that i have developed my skills in learning new techniques.

For example my first point that i would like to make is that of the different variety's of camera i used. In the first task i used a simple hand held camcorder. This was very straight forward to use meaning that we knew how to use it without teaching, however for the main film, we had to use a professional Sony camera that had many different options with it, for example you could change the sound that the mic was producing through it. This meant we had to have a tutorial from our teacher on how to use it as it was a expensive piece of equipment. I believe this has helped me alot in learning how to operate big heavy equipment compared to basic cameras and
recorders.
My second point I would like to make is the use of the editing software, Adobe Premiere Pro. The reasoning for this is that in the preliminary task I only knew how to edit and put clips together, however in the main task I learnt how to make the jump cuts fade in and out and produce title for the start and end of the film for example credits. This made me feel i had better access to the software available to me and I was able to use it to its max resulting in the film having swift cuts.
M third and final point of progression i have made from the the preliminary task is that of being able to co-ordinate the group better and speak out about if i think something wasn't very good for example, in the preliminary task i didn't feel that what my character was being made to act was relevant to the main focus of the film  being made, however in the main film I made sure that if I felt something did not look right on the script i then brought i up with the main leader of the group who was jack and we talked over and discussed how we could possibly change it to make it work better.

Main Post 12.6 Question 6

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

I have learnt from the technologies from this process that they play a key part in making a success full film. For example without Adobe Premiere Pro we would not be able to construct certain elements of film and put it together. Also we wouldn't be able to cut and edit the unnecessary scenes out. With You tube I was able to get views from practically across the world if people viewed it, this made me able to get feedback on the product so i know where i went wrong. As well if it wasn't for the Sony Camera which we filmed our product from, then it would be poor quality film and when the camera panned it would be blurry, however this camera was professional and it gave us the advantages of listening in HD while filming and being able to rewind so we could go back and re shoot a scene if we had too.
Also the flip camera made me learn how to upload quick and simple videos on to my Blogger which made it easy for me to make it viewable to people easily and quickly. The use of the 'ideas matter' website Prezi, has taught me how to do a professional presentation with good quality and upload it to Blogger.

MAIN Post 12.5: Question 5

How did we attract the audience?
I believed that we attracted to our audience from our sharp, eye attention name 'Poker Face'. This is a iconic song name as well by Lady GaGa, so most people would have heard her song and expect the film to live it up to the high expectations of the fantastic song. Also when they see that it is a action film like James Bond then they would love to compare it to that film and that of other action films as well.

Feedback
For the feedback on the film my group and i decided that we would ask people within our friendship group, and as none took media they could not be bias towards the film resulting in them giving us original opinions. Some people said that they wish to have seen more of the film, and others said they wished it was more thrilling and action scene's, due to the fact we only had one action scene.

Film rating
In order for us to know what sought of rating our film was, we had to use the website www.bbfc.co.uk. This website allowed us to view the guidelines for our film and what they are. We decided that it is best if we rate our film a 12A. This shows that the film has mild swearing and can be used within a aggressive context. Also due to the fact that Lily is tied up it could refer to sexual acts.

MAIN Post 12.4: Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Based on our research into a our target audience,our target audience are predominatly males as they are the thrill seekers and wish to aspire to be like james bond when they were little kids. The age group ranges from 16-60 year olds. The reason for there being such a wide variety of audience age group is because they get very attached to action films as they resmeble the characters who play it as hero and every man wants to be a hero.

In the above picture is Jovell, Jovell was the person in our focus group video. Jovell is a hard working full time sixth form student which means he has every little time on his hand for pleasure activities, resulting in him not having seen many new films recently. His favourite film is James Bond Casino Royale. He likes this film due to the fact it is a action film genre meaning that this is why he was suitable for our film. He does lots of homework and takes media meaning that he has a very good understanding of our film.

MAIN Post 12.3: Question 3

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

Due to the fact that that i have been working on other film production company's and the way that they distribute their products and the financial back up that the makers receive in order to make the movies successful is a large quantity. As we would be classed as a small based independent film production company we would need a big company for example Warner Brothers to give us the money to advertise and distribite our work. Warner Brothers in order to stay on top of the market have many subsidiary arms in which they have different areas these company's focus on. So one of the arms would be based in the UK and would spot potential within the film and give us financial support to distribute it.

MAIN Post 12.2: Question 2

For this post i was asked to take a screen grab of the characters in my film and the costume they was wearing and compare them to a genre of a professional film. The most ideal film that i chose for this section was the newly released Gangster Squad. In Gangster Squad the characters are made up of hardcore mobsters and FBI agents. As this follows the screen role plays of our films it is suitable.

You can see from what jack is wearing. person on the left of the bottom picture, is the mobster, he is wearing braces, with white shirt and tie. This is exactly what the mobster is wearing in the picture to the left, which is in Gangster Squad. He is wearing a top hate with braces, white shirt and tie. This means that we have met the required costume for the mobsters.

Danny 'dwain' the person on the right in the picture to the left, is the FBI agent. Hero of the hour in other terms who comes into the room with all guns blazing. He is wearing a suit and tie which the character in the top left picture is wearing, who is meant to resemble the agent. We have also met what the proffesional characters where for an action type mobster film.

MAIN Post 12.1: Question 1

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

• Structure of sequence
• Style of presentation
• Style/colour of font
• Genre
• Narrative enigma
• Introduction of characters
• Camera
• Sound
• Editing & Special Effects
• Mise-en-scene

MAIN Post 12: Evaluation Introduction

MAIN Post 11: Final Opening Sequence

Below is my final opening sequence,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w85dGCbZVvg

MAIN Post 10: Post-production

MAIN Post 9: Production

How did the shoot go?
I feel that the shoot went very well due to the fact that my group and I were commited to making a success of it. We chose a very good cast of background actors and they acted very well and were in character throughout the shooting of the film. The different camera shots made the continuity of the film very good, for example we had medium close ups to show the shock horror on the actors.

What problems did you encounter?
The problems that me and my group encountered was the time we had to shoot our film due to the fact that camera only had a very short battery from previous use and us not charging it. This meant that we could have been prone rushing and forgetting things, thankfully we didn't. Also to produce the casino type tense lighting we had a light bulb dangling from the ceiling. The problem was half way through shooting the tape lost its grip and the light bulb went crashing to the floor, this meant we had to use the normal lighting which didn't have the same effect.

How did you overcome the problems?
We overcame the problems by using only half the fixed lighting through the light switches which made us still have the same effect but not as good, resulting in continuity not being very consistent. Also we went and got a back up battery just in case the one we was using ran out, plus making sure that the actors knew their lines and exactly what they were doing so we didn't have to do re-takes.

How well did you work as a team?
In my opinion we worked very efficiently as a team. The communication between us was second to none. Everybody knew their jobs and there was no arguing as to who was doing what. My group and I made sure that we was all allocated jobs to carry out in the production of the film resulting in it being a success.

From looking at the film i can see that there are some continuity areas for example, theres a scene when i face the wall and my shirt is untucked at the back, but when i walk over to lily the hostage it is somehow tucked in. Its tiny small details that make or break a film but thankfully you have to look closely to view ours. The editing side of it, which i have to praise jack and charlie for done a very good job and the film looks very good as there are no sudden jumps which make the cuts bad.

MAIN Post 8: Pre-production documentation

Synopsis of the Whole Film - Dwain Jefferson (Danny) an undecover police federal agent has been tasked yet again with an hostage situation, this time its perosnal and the Mafia gang who he's had dealing with in the past have captured his girlfriend. Dwain wanting his girlfriend back and to take out the mob searches streets, people and houses for clues. The Mafia mob have captured his girlfriend (lily) for one thing only, money. The reasoning is that Dwain has been left a million dollars by his late father. The question is will dwain give in and give them the money, or bust the door in and go in all guns blazing like a scene from a wild west western film or will the mafia get the money and keep the girlfirend?

Synopsis of the opening sequence - Camera is hovering over Dwain within his office with a black and white screen to show the depression and emotion behind him looking at a picture over his dead dad and thinking whether he will be looking at a picture of his dead girl friend, the opening credits then slowly are shown inturn at the bottom of the screen. The camear then switches to the Mafia mob playing a round of poker as Dwains girlfriend sits tied up in the background. They then recieve a phone call from Dwain, which he puts the phone down on them, then he comes busting in through the door, the camera then fades out and the film title appears.

Mise-en-scene description

Shot list

Crew list - the film
Jack - 'Vinnie'
Danny - 'Dwain'
Charlie - 'Sonny'
Me - 'Tony'

Crew list - off screen roles
Jack Cotton - Director/editor/pre-production
Charlie - Chief editor/pre-production
Me - Pre-production
Danny - Pre-production

The Script

Time Line/ Treatment

Storyboard

Location Recce

MAIN Post 7 - Focus Group

Above is the video of Louis Stewart, we asked Louis a series of questions, for example we asked louis what he thought of the script on paper and he replied that he thought it looked good and we had aimed at the right target audience. Have a listen.

MAIN Post 6: History of your chosen genre

The majority of action films which you see include tremendous impactand continuous high energy, to keep the audience with the whole rhythmof the scene and what’s going on. Lots of physical stunts and activity areput in to emphasise on the whole action and brutality of the scene. Theyinclude chase scenes, races, rescues, battles these are all included, theyget people adrenalin flowing as normally these are faced paced andinclude large impacts and destruction. Martial arts and fight scenes areincluded in a lot of fight scene mainly used by the main characters todefeat the bad guy they use allot of non-stop motion, spectacular rhythmand pacing to really get the audience to feel the pace and spped of thefight . Destructive disasters which normally includefloods, explosions, natural disasters these always have one of the morevenerable characters also know as the ‘ Damsel In Distress’ where themain character does a spectacular rescue.During the 1920s and 1930s many films featured asswashbuckling, these are action adventure subgenre films, theynormally consist of sword fighting and adventurous heroiccharacters, these will normally be sit in renaissance westernEurope, the plot to this is normally a damsel in distress and a romanticelement.The 1940s and 1950s saw a different subgenre of films, most films in the 40sand 50s were mainly in he form of a war film, or a cowboy movie. War filmswere generally related on warfare, these either consisted of naval, air or landbattles. Some of these were prisoners of war this is where the film has the plotof someone who is held in prisoner by an enemy during or immediately afterthe war or conflict between either sides. The 1960s Introduced a new subgenre of action films, this was the SpyAdventure Genre, These films, were something new, James Bond cameinto the whole equation, These films dominated the action films of 1960s.This introduced to everyone the staples of a modern day action film. Thesefilms normally consisted of a ‘one man army’.The 1970s, This is where bond saw a competition on his hands thesewere gritty detective stories and urban crime dramas, these consisted ofthis new action style, leading to a string of police officer films all of whichfeatured an intense car chase, which they replicated of bonds popularstuntwork of the Bond films.The 70s also saw the introduction of martial-arts films to westernaudiences.