Tuesday 27 March 2012
Evaluation Question 7
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 continuity exercise we used Danny (from our own group) as the actor. This worked well because he knew what we were looking to do and could style his acting around the effect we wanted it to have. On the other hand, in the final task we used Immie (from our media class) and Dan (from our Sixth Form) as the actor and actress. This caused a bit of confusion at first but once they knew what they were doing and became more comfortable, I believe it worked really well.
For the preliminary continuity we didn't work as well as we could have as a team. Even though we made a solid storyboard for this task, it took us a while to think of a good idea and this caused us to be fairly unorganised when it came to planning the continuity task. I would say that the quality of our filming was slightly restricted, but this was mainly because it was all new to us. Once we got used to the way the camera worked and had decided on what we were going to do, it all became easier.
When it came to filming the final task, we all worked a bit better in our group, because we knew each other better it was much easier to storyboard our ideas the planning was a lot more thought out. We were also a lot more confident when it came to filming and editing. Because it was the second time round of using the cameras, it felt a lot more comfortable and we were able to film some really good stuff.
However, we did change our idea after filming our first main task. We had already planned an idea and even filmed it, but when we used iMovie to edit it, we realised that we could do better so we decided to scrap the first idea and film a completely new and improved film opening. This worked very well and i think everyone in our group is glad that we did.
I, personally, improved many skills throughout the making and research of these two tasks. For example, I became much more confident when using the cameras to film our opening footage and also using iMovie for editing it. I also, became better at planning the ideas and certainly worked better in my group as we went on. We also managed our time well as a group by using our lesson time to film and then we did most of the editing and also working on our blogs in our own time. Overall I believe both tasks were a success and I enjoyed working with my group and completing both of the tasks to a good standard.
For the preliminary continuity exercise we used Danny (from our own group) as the actor. This worked well because he knew what we were looking to do and could style his acting around the effect we wanted it to have. On the other hand, in the final task we used Immie (from our media class) and Dan (from our Sixth Form) as the actor and actress. This caused a bit of confusion at first but once they knew what they were doing and became more comfortable, I believe it worked really well.
For the preliminary continuity we didn't work as well as we could have as a team. Even though we made a solid storyboard for this task, it took us a while to think of a good idea and this caused us to be fairly unorganised when it came to planning the continuity task. I would say that the quality of our filming was slightly restricted, but this was mainly because it was all new to us. Once we got used to the way the camera worked and had decided on what we were going to do, it all became easier.
When it came to filming the final task, we all worked a bit better in our group, because we knew each other better it was much easier to storyboard our ideas the planning was a lot more thought out. We were also a lot more confident when it came to filming and editing. Because it was the second time round of using the cameras, it felt a lot more comfortable and we were able to film some really good stuff.
However, we did change our idea after filming our first main task. We had already planned an idea and even filmed it, but when we used iMovie to edit it, we realised that we could do better so we decided to scrap the first idea and film a completely new and improved film opening. This worked very well and i think everyone in our group is glad that we did.
I, personally, improved many skills throughout the making and research of these two tasks. For example, I became much more confident when using the cameras to film our opening footage and also using iMovie for editing it. I also, became better at planning the ideas and certainly worked better in my group as we went on. We also managed our time well as a group by using our lesson time to film and then we did most of the editing and also working on our blogs in our own time. Overall I believe both tasks were a success and I enjoyed working with my group and completing both of the tasks to a good standard.
Monday 26 March 2012
Evaluation Question 6
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
During the research, construction/production and editing of our film opening we, as a group, used a lot of different digital technology. This included, the Internet (blogger), digital cameras, YouTube and the iMac's (iMovie).
Internet
To be able to research our film genre we needed the internet to search for all types of pictures, videos and helpful articles. The internet allowed me to search for all the websites such as Wikipedia etc. We also, obviously, used the website Blogger to construct these blogs. On our school computers it was not possible to access Blogger without downloading and installing Google Chrome first, this was a bit annoying but once it was done, it made blogging a lot easier.
Blogger is quick and easy to use and you are able to upload pictures, videos and links to your posts and publish them very easily. However, as I mentioned before it is not compatible with with certain school computers and there is a limited range of things you can include in your posts. For example, fonts, colours and effects which make the published posts seem a little dull.
Google chrome was helpful but as it was the only option when using Blogger, there was no other alternative. An advantage of it is that I could access Blogger at school and also at home. This made it easier to carry on working on my blog without having to send it home through an email or saving it on a memory stick. On the other hand you have to download Google Chrome to access Blogger each time you log onto the computers this took a considerable amount of time each lesson and it also had a habit of crashing, this meant losing all my progress which became very stressful and time consuming.
Sony Digital Cameras
During the research, construction/production and editing of our film opening we, as a group, used a lot of different digital technology. This included, the Internet (blogger), digital cameras, YouTube and the iMac's (iMovie).
Internet
To be able to research our film genre we needed the internet to search for all types of pictures, videos and helpful articles. The internet allowed me to search for all the websites such as Wikipedia etc. We also, obviously, used the website Blogger to construct these blogs. On our school computers it was not possible to access Blogger without downloading and installing Google Chrome first, this was a bit annoying but once it was done, it made blogging a lot easier.
Blogger is quick and easy to use and you are able to upload pictures, videos and links to your posts and publish them very easily. However, as I mentioned before it is not compatible with with certain school computers and there is a limited range of things you can include in your posts. For example, fonts, colours and effects which make the published posts seem a little dull.
Google chrome was helpful but as it was the only option when using Blogger, there was no other alternative. An advantage of it is that I could access Blogger at school and also at home. This made it easier to carry on working on my blog without having to send it home through an email or saving it on a memory stick. On the other hand you have to download Google Chrome to access Blogger each time you log onto the computers this took a considerable amount of time each lesson and it also had a habit of crashing, this meant losing all my progress which became very stressful and time consuming.
YouTube
The main advantage of using YouTube is that it is quick, simple and free to use. Also, it has a wide range of clips from past films all in one place, making it very easy to research my film genre and access a whole load of significant movie clips. A disadvantage is that there are a lot of unrelavent clips/videos so it could take a while to find the exact one you want.
Sony Digital Cameras
Advantages of these cameras include the fact that it is small, light and therefore easy to carry around. Also, the use of a tripod made the quality of filming a lot easier. However, its sometimes not compatible with the iMac's and in particular the iMovie programme which was important for both producing the continuity task and the main film opening. Making it very difficult at times to edit the footage on iMovie. Also, the sound quality on the cameras is not the greatest so sometimes it is hard to hear the dialogue. We avoided this problem by including no dialogue in our film opening, instead we included a voice over and the quality of this is much better.
Apple Mac's/iMovie
The best thing about the Mac's is that it uses the Safari web browser which is compatible with the blogger website, which meant that I didn't have to download Google Chrome meaning using blogger was quick and easy. However, it doesn't have networking and therefore all of our saved items on the other windows computer was not available when using the Mac. iMovie was also very easy to use and made editing both tasks very simple.
Friday 16 March 2012
Evaluation Questions 4 and 5
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
The classic Film Noir genre would be aimed at an older audience simply because the original Film Noir was big in the 1950's. However nowadays, the main target audience is late teens/young adult due to content such as violence, language and sex and drug references. As result of this, most Film Noir genre films are given an 18 certificate. In addition to this, the target audience is more likely to be male than female because of the amount of violence included in these genre films.
In relation to our media product, the audience would generally be young adults aged 16-35. We attracted our audience by handing out questionnaires and then analysing the responses. We decided on how to plan it after looking back at the results from our questionnaire's and making the pie charts from the results. Through doing this we found out the most of the people we asked would rather watch a film on Film4 than Sky Movies, also not many people have seen a Film Noir genre film, so when making our opening we had to take into consideration that many of the viewers would not know much about the genre.
We also found that people felt costumes and props are key to a successful media product. When we originally filmed our piece we noticed that the costumes we used didn't reflect the classic Film Noir costumes so we decided that when we re-filmed we would use more modern costumes as we were planning to aim our media product at a audience of young adults. When doing this, we decided to dress the female in a black high waisted skirt, heels, white shirt and red lipstick. This portrays a typical Film Noir outfit for a female, but with a modern twist to attract our target audience.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
The classic Film Noir genre would be aimed at an older audience simply because the original Film Noir was big in the 1950's. However nowadays, the main target audience is late teens/young adult due to content such as violence, language and sex and drug references. As result of this, most Film Noir genre films are given an 18 certificate. In addition to this, the target audience is more likely to be male than female because of the amount of violence included in these genre films.
In relation to our media product, the audience would generally be young adults aged 16-35. We attracted our audience by handing out questionnaires and then analysing the responses. We decided on how to plan it after looking back at the results from our questionnaire's and making the pie charts from the results. Through doing this we found out the most of the people we asked would rather watch a film on Film4 than Sky Movies, also not many people have seen a Film Noir genre film, so when making our opening we had to take into consideration that many of the viewers would not know much about the genre.
We also found that people felt costumes and props are key to a successful media product. When we originally filmed our piece we noticed that the costumes we used didn't reflect the classic Film Noir costumes so we decided that when we re-filmed we would use more modern costumes as we were planning to aim our media product at a audience of young adults. When doing this, we decided to dress the female in a black high waisted skirt, heels, white shirt and red lipstick. This portrays a typical Film Noir outfit for a female, but with a modern twist to attract our target audience.
Thursday 15 March 2012
Evaluation Question 3
3. What kind of media institution would distribute your media product and why?
Our media product is a low budget British film. Film4 tend to produce low budget British films and Fox Searchlight Pictures usually distribute films such as these as well, so they would be perfect for producing and distributing our product.
Film4 is a free digital television channel available in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and Switzerland, owned and operated by Channel 4, that screens films. Film4 did not originally focus on broadcasting blockbusters, as it concentrated on British films, but nowadays broadcasts many mainstream Hollywood movies. The channel frequently has themed nights or seasons in which a number of films centred around one genre, director or actor are shown.
Fox Searchlight Pictures, established in 1994, is a film division of Fox Filmed Entertainment alongside the larger Fox studio 20th Century Fox. It specializes in independent and British films, alongside drama and horror as well as non-English-language films, and is variously involved with the production and/or distribution of these films.
These producers and distributors would be well suited to our media product because as i have mentioned before they produce and distribute low budget, British films. They will also be good because Film4 and Fox get a lot of publicity and our film would be promoted very well. The main form of promotion/marketing would probably come through TV. However as our film would hardly have any money at all we would have to try and follow the example of the 2010 film Skeletons. Skeletons is an unusual, intriguing work from debutant writer-director Nick Whitfield, the worthwhile winner of the Michael Powell Award for best new British feature at the Edinburgh Film Festival. They didn't get a deal with a big distributor, instead they built their own audience by starting groups, fan pages, and a website that promoted their film. We could do this to attract our audience and we could even edit a trailer and put it on YouTube, this would improve the ease and accessibility for our target audience.
Evaluation Question 2
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our idea for the film was to represent the classic Film Noir genre conventions, but with a modern day twist. For example, we included a male detective (the victim) in a smart suit and a trilby hat and his wife (the femme fatale) in a dress, high heels and red lipstick. This was to give the characters a traditional, classic look and it fitted very well with the Film Noir genre conventions. We added the black and white effect to relate to the time period of the 1950's, which was when the classic Film Noir genre was very popular. We also filmed it in the domestic setting of a kitchen. This gave the film an odd twist and added to the effect of a different situation to the normal generic film.
In relation to the typical conventions and the verisimilitude or realism of our film opening, we have included the femme fatale and a male detective, however we have made it so the male detective was the victim of the situation. We also excluded the typical setting of bars, clubs etc. and as i mentioned before changed it to a kitchen. In our film opening we have tried to change the classic stereotype of the female being the victim and the male being the 'bad guy'. We have done this to create a sense of realism and so our audience can relate to it.
We took the realism of a husband wife with marital problems, the wife suspecting her husbands having an affair etc. and we chose to not include any dialogue. Instead we added a voice over, this lets the audience know what is happening in the film without taking credit away the from visual in the opening.
Our idea for the film was to represent the classic Film Noir genre conventions, but with a modern day twist. For example, we included a male detective (the victim) in a smart suit and a trilby hat and his wife (the femme fatale) in a dress, high heels and red lipstick. This was to give the characters a traditional, classic look and it fitted very well with the Film Noir genre conventions. We added the black and white effect to relate to the time period of the 1950's, which was when the classic Film Noir genre was very popular. We also filmed it in the domestic setting of a kitchen. This gave the film an odd twist and added to the effect of a different situation to the normal generic film.
In relation to the typical conventions and the verisimilitude or realism of our film opening, we have included the femme fatale and a male detective, however we have made it so the male detective was the victim of the situation. We also excluded the typical setting of bars, clubs etc. and as i mentioned before changed it to a kitchen. In our film opening we have tried to change the classic stereotype of the female being the victim and the male being the 'bad guy'. We have done this to create a sense of realism and so our audience can relate to it.
We took the realism of a husband wife with marital problems, the wife suspecting her husbands having an affair etc. and we chose to not include any dialogue. Instead we added a voice over, this lets the audience know what is happening in the film without taking credit away the from visual in the opening.
Evaluation Question 1
1. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
When we edited our original opening sequence, we realised that it wasn't right and didn't fit the Film Noir genre as well as we first anticipated. This caused us to rethink our opening and we decided on a new story, based on the Roald Dahl book 'Lamb to the Slaughter'.
I think our media product reflects and represents the Film Noir genre conventions well. We included a traditional male detective, a femme fatale and even edited our filming into black and white. This effect and the characters costumes gave it a more authentic look and further referred to the classic Film Noir genre conventions.
I think that we challenged and 'played' with some of the generic conventions of classic Film Noir. For example, typical settings include bars, nightclubs, gambling dens etc. however we decided to set our film in the domestic setting of a kitchen. This is partly because this was available to us and easily accessible and some Film Noir films are set in a more domestic settings such as 'The Postman Always Rings Twice'. Also, our film is based around a husband and wife, so a kitchen setting gives it a twist on the typical Film Noir settings.
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