Thursday, 29 March 2012
Monday, 26 March 2012
Task 10: Evaluation
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
In our opening film sequence, we feel that some typical thriller conventions were used, but also challenged. An example of typical conventions which we used is we changed the lighting within the film to give it a more eerie atmosphere.
[Insert screenshot]
Another typical convention that we used was using tense, fast paced music for when Tony enters the building. We changed our music which originally was quite slow in tempo, but when we changed it to a fast tempo, it made Tony appear a lot more scary and intimidating, which is how we wanted him to be like in the film.
There were some conventions which we challenged in our film. For example, typically the antagonists in a thriller are a lot older or mature. However in our film, the antagonist Tony is about middle-aged, which is quite surprising because in most thrillers, the antagonist is expected to be about 40-50 years old.
[Insert screenshot]
Another convention which was obeyed in our film was that we used quick cuts in the beginning. Quick shots and cuts build up pace and tension within the film and is used in many thrillers, for example 'Sherlock Holmes'. We used this technique in the very beginning of our film when Tony enters the communication centre. A series of quick, seamless cuts is used and builds up tension as Tony enters the building, showing the audience how intimidating he is.
A convention which we obeyed is how Tony and Donny are in a constant psychological battle. Most thrillers do this because it builds up tension, also it differentiates who out the characters has the weakest mental state. Tony and Donny are constantly trying to get under each other’s skin and are always trying to provoke each other. It builds up tension because, the more they argue, the more aggressive they become.
[Insert screenshot]
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In our film, overall I would say we haven't really challenged typical thriller social groups. One example of this is the antagonist and protagonist is both males. This is typical in a thriller as the main antagonist and protagonist are at a high level in the hierarchy of characters. A woman is really considered a big threat normally, due to the idea that they are seen as ‘the weaker gender’ thus we have not included a woman as an antagonist or protagonist. However, we have included a female character as a secretary, which is typical in the majority of films because, women are minor characters so in most thrillers, they are given minor roles. A secretary is an example of one of these roles.
However in the age category, we have challenged a typical convention. With the character of Donny, his character is a young leader in his late 20s which can be considered unusual in a thriller. In a thriller, a protagonist is usually much older as they are considered more mature, which we were originally going to do. Although, we thought that if we had Donny as a young person, it would suit his personality. We wanted Donny to be a very arrogant person who is very full of himself. Young people tend to be a lot more foolish and big-headed, so if we had a young person playing Donny his arrogant characteristics will look more realistic.
Another aspect which we covered is social class. Typically in a gangsta-crime themed thriller, the antagonist and/or protagonist are very well presented in order to show significance and importance. The two main characters Donny and Tony are big and serious businessman. In our film they are dressed up in smart business suits and both act true leaders. This will enhance their social status, distinguishing them from other characters, making them appear superior, which is what we wanted as the focus is on them and no one else.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Warner Bros Film Company has created many great thriller films since they were founded in 1918. After over a decade of beginning the company, they began to build success of gang themed, thriller films. One of the earliest they made was The Public Enemy in 1931. Since then many thrillers have been created by Warner Bros, including The Departed which won several awards and four Oscars.
Warner Bros films have a good history of creating successful thriller films since their early stages of development. Thus we have come to the conclusion that they would be the best film studio to distribute our film as it is a thriller, which features in their specialised genre. With a big company like Warner Bros, they can put enough funding into the film to give it the features of a typical big budget such as; state of the art special effects and the best advertising they can afford.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Any particular social can watch the films as it is not directed at any social area. There is mixture of classes thrown into the film such as upper class (A or B) people represented by the important business men, and lower and middle class represented by extras (C1, C2, D or E).
Age however is slightly restricted. Due to our film being classified as a 12A, we feel that it is not a good film choice for young children, given the fact that there is some violence in the film. Also, thrillers aren’t considered to be the most popular genre by younger teenagers as the long and sophisticated plots can become boring for them. Therefore we feel our film is targeted mainly for a more mature audience who can follow a longer and more in depth storyline, whilst still enjoying the film.
No particular ethnic group is targeted or related to in the film either. There isn’t a mixture of any social races other than white Caucasians, but there is not any obvious reasons shown for that in our film.
5. How did you attract/address your audiences?
Our film name was quite important in making our film interesting to audiences. ‘The Deception’ is a very unusual name to call a thriller, but we feel it shows a strong sense betrayal and deceitfulness, which is what our plot is mainly about, two men engaging in conflict over an act of disloyalty. This also drip feeds information to the audience about the plot and theme in our film. This is a key portion into the advertising of the film, because it gives the audience a hint to what the film is about, and then they can decide whether or not they would be interested in going to the cinema to see the film.
Also the type of characters in the film can attract an audience as well. Tony and Donny are two very important, big business men (A/B class) who are linked with people in crime. When they clash, it is as if two big corporate giants are fighting for money and respect, and are willing to become violent in the process.
Different marketing strategies would be involved the process of advertising. One of these would be traditional marketing. This would be any type of advertising that does not involve the internet. An example of this is public posters. These are one of the most common forms traditional marketing used in the present day. Public posters make lots of people aware of the film by implanting images into their minds, just by quick glances at bus posters, bill boards etc.
The other form of marketing is viral. This is marketing by the use of the internet. This can be in the form of leaked screenshots, online trailers etc. This method is the most effective way of advertising currently as most young people are now using the internet. If we were to advertise our film by the internet, I think the best way to do this is by creating a website which slowly drip feeds information to the public, it would create great anticipation for the film, thus a bigger audience would want to go and see the film.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
When we began the preliminary task during the early stages of our course, we learnt useful techniques when filming. One useful technique we learnt about is the 180 degree rule, where the camera cannot go past a certain point when characters engage in conversation; otherwise it can be confusing for the audience. We did notice during the production of our film we did break this rule, but after we detected our mistake we corrected it immediately and there was a noticeable improvement.
We also learnt different techniques we do with the camera. We learnt of variety of camera angles which we used in the film. We understood which angle was best to use for a particular part in the film for example, when we wanted to show Tony’s superiority, we used a low angle shot to make Tony look like a larger, and more dominant character.
On the iMac computers, the film editing software we used was Adobe Premier. There were a lot of different effects we used to edit our film. An example of this is changing the lighting in shots. With this we created a dark and eerie atmosphere in the film to create tension and an uncomforting feeling within the audience. It was very good thing for us to learn because, by changing the filters and lighting, we were able to change the atmosphere in the film through a very creative process.
Another technique we learnt on the iMac’s is the use of dissolves. We learnt that dissolves were a good method on showing a passage of time. A part in which we used dissolves in the film is changing to the scene in Tamworth. We thought it was very effective and did the job we intended it to do.
I developed various I.T techniques through the creating of the blog. As we made new posts in the blog, I learnt some I.T skills through this process. One of which we used was embedding a video. When we made our preliminary task, it was put on youtube.com by our teacher. From then on, I was able to embed our video with a youtube.com link into the blog. This enabled whoever was reading the blog, would be able to watch the video on the blog without looking for it on youtube.com. I then did this again in my thriller analysis of ‘Red Dragon’. I embedded a video on youtube.com of the trailer for ‘Red Dragon’.
Also by the blog I was able to insert images which were found by a browser. This technique was the most useful to me as there were a lot of images inserted into my blog. I think this became very useful in most of my posts, such as the report film certification. This was because if no one had heard of the film classes, they would instantly recognise the logo of the certificate as they always displayed during the showing of a film.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
From working in my group, I have learnt a few skills to cooperating with a filming group. One of them is the quality of acting. When we did our film, we thought doing one take would not be enough. For this we would try to do at least three different good shots of a sequence, then this would give options in the editing.
Also I found it very useful working in a group for the filming. If it were just one person operating each role, the film may not have too much variety and creativity. Instead we all gave in our opinion and decided which was the best for each what we were deciding. For example, we were able to use wide range of camera angles and shots when we all fed in different ideas.
When using the camera we learnt a lot of news techniques. One of these which we liked diong in the prelimniary task was the shot reverse shot. This was probably our camera shot that we used in the preliminary task, which we again used quite a lot of in the main project. We loved minxing and incorporating a varietyof camera shots and angles inton the film as it made the film better, and it also helped us develop a good level of creativity.
A peice if software which used as well was GarageBand. This was where we created our own composed music and applied it to a Charlie Chaplin sketch. Although we didn't compose our music in our project, it was still helpful and practical to learn these skills in case we would need them for any new projects in A2.
In conclusion, I believe the preliminary task has been very useful in terms of developing my film making skills. I learnt a good quality and variety of camera techniques, editing skills and much more. These were especially useful as we needed them for our main project. Without the basic skills and techniques which we learnt, we may not have made a good peice of work.
In our opening film sequence, we feel that some typical thriller conventions were used, but also challenged. An example of typical conventions which we used is we changed the lighting within the film to give it a more eerie atmosphere.
[Insert screenshot]
Another typical convention that we used was using tense, fast paced music for when Tony enters the building. We changed our music which originally was quite slow in tempo, but when we changed it to a fast tempo, it made Tony appear a lot more scary and intimidating, which is how we wanted him to be like in the film.
There were some conventions which we challenged in our film. For example, typically the antagonists in a thriller are a lot older or mature. However in our film, the antagonist Tony is about middle-aged, which is quite surprising because in most thrillers, the antagonist is expected to be about 40-50 years old.
[Insert screenshot]
Another convention which was obeyed in our film was that we used quick cuts in the beginning. Quick shots and cuts build up pace and tension within the film and is used in many thrillers, for example 'Sherlock Holmes'. We used this technique in the very beginning of our film when Tony enters the communication centre. A series of quick, seamless cuts is used and builds up tension as Tony enters the building, showing the audience how intimidating he is.
A convention which we obeyed is how Tony and Donny are in a constant psychological battle. Most thrillers do this because it builds up tension, also it differentiates who out the characters has the weakest mental state. Tony and Donny are constantly trying to get under each other’s skin and are always trying to provoke each other. It builds up tension because, the more they argue, the more aggressive they become.
[Insert screenshot]
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In our film, overall I would say we haven't really challenged typical thriller social groups. One example of this is the antagonist and protagonist is both males. This is typical in a thriller as the main antagonist and protagonist are at a high level in the hierarchy of characters. A woman is really considered a big threat normally, due to the idea that they are seen as ‘the weaker gender’ thus we have not included a woman as an antagonist or protagonist. However, we have included a female character as a secretary, which is typical in the majority of films because, women are minor characters so in most thrillers, they are given minor roles. A secretary is an example of one of these roles.
However in the age category, we have challenged a typical convention. With the character of Donny, his character is a young leader in his late 20s which can be considered unusual in a thriller. In a thriller, a protagonist is usually much older as they are considered more mature, which we were originally going to do. Although, we thought that if we had Donny as a young person, it would suit his personality. We wanted Donny to be a very arrogant person who is very full of himself. Young people tend to be a lot more foolish and big-headed, so if we had a young person playing Donny his arrogant characteristics will look more realistic.
Another aspect which we covered is social class. Typically in a gangsta-crime themed thriller, the antagonist and/or protagonist are very well presented in order to show significance and importance. The two main characters Donny and Tony are big and serious businessman. In our film they are dressed up in smart business suits and both act true leaders. This will enhance their social status, distinguishing them from other characters, making them appear superior, which is what we wanted as the focus is on them and no one else.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Warner Bros Film Company has created many great thriller films since they were founded in 1918. After over a decade of beginning the company, they began to build success of gang themed, thriller films. One of the earliest they made was The Public Enemy in 1931. Since then many thrillers have been created by Warner Bros, including The Departed which won several awards and four Oscars.
Warner Bros films have a good history of creating successful thriller films since their early stages of development. Thus we have come to the conclusion that they would be the best film studio to distribute our film as it is a thriller, which features in their specialised genre. With a big company like Warner Bros, they can put enough funding into the film to give it the features of a typical big budget such as; state of the art special effects and the best advertising they can afford.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Any particular social can watch the films as it is not directed at any social area. There is mixture of classes thrown into the film such as upper class (A or B) people represented by the important business men, and lower and middle class represented by extras (C1, C2, D or E).
Age however is slightly restricted. Due to our film being classified as a 12A, we feel that it is not a good film choice for young children, given the fact that there is some violence in the film. Also, thrillers aren’t considered to be the most popular genre by younger teenagers as the long and sophisticated plots can become boring for them. Therefore we feel our film is targeted mainly for a more mature audience who can follow a longer and more in depth storyline, whilst still enjoying the film.
No particular ethnic group is targeted or related to in the film either. There isn’t a mixture of any social races other than white Caucasians, but there is not any obvious reasons shown for that in our film.
5. How did you attract/address your audiences?
Our film name was quite important in making our film interesting to audiences. ‘The Deception’ is a very unusual name to call a thriller, but we feel it shows a strong sense betrayal and deceitfulness, which is what our plot is mainly about, two men engaging in conflict over an act of disloyalty. This also drip feeds information to the audience about the plot and theme in our film. This is a key portion into the advertising of the film, because it gives the audience a hint to what the film is about, and then they can decide whether or not they would be interested in going to the cinema to see the film.
Also the type of characters in the film can attract an audience as well. Tony and Donny are two very important, big business men (A/B class) who are linked with people in crime. When they clash, it is as if two big corporate giants are fighting for money and respect, and are willing to become violent in the process.
Different marketing strategies would be involved the process of advertising. One of these would be traditional marketing. This would be any type of advertising that does not involve the internet. An example of this is public posters. These are one of the most common forms traditional marketing used in the present day. Public posters make lots of people aware of the film by implanting images into their minds, just by quick glances at bus posters, bill boards etc.
The other form of marketing is viral. This is marketing by the use of the internet. This can be in the form of leaked screenshots, online trailers etc. This method is the most effective way of advertising currently as most young people are now using the internet. If we were to advertise our film by the internet, I think the best way to do this is by creating a website which slowly drip feeds information to the public, it would create great anticipation for the film, thus a bigger audience would want to go and see the film.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
When we began the preliminary task during the early stages of our course, we learnt useful techniques when filming. One useful technique we learnt about is the 180 degree rule, where the camera cannot go past a certain point when characters engage in conversation; otherwise it can be confusing for the audience. We did notice during the production of our film we did break this rule, but after we detected our mistake we corrected it immediately and there was a noticeable improvement.
We also learnt different techniques we do with the camera. We learnt of variety of camera angles which we used in the film. We understood which angle was best to use for a particular part in the film for example, when we wanted to show Tony’s superiority, we used a low angle shot to make Tony look like a larger, and more dominant character.
On the iMac computers, the film editing software we used was Adobe Premier. There were a lot of different effects we used to edit our film. An example of this is changing the lighting in shots. With this we created a dark and eerie atmosphere in the film to create tension and an uncomforting feeling within the audience. It was very good thing for us to learn because, by changing the filters and lighting, we were able to change the atmosphere in the film through a very creative process.
Another technique we learnt on the iMac’s is the use of dissolves. We learnt that dissolves were a good method on showing a passage of time. A part in which we used dissolves in the film is changing to the scene in Tamworth. We thought it was very effective and did the job we intended it to do.
I developed various I.T techniques through the creating of the blog. As we made new posts in the blog, I learnt some I.T skills through this process. One of which we used was embedding a video. When we made our preliminary task, it was put on youtube.com by our teacher. From then on, I was able to embed our video with a youtube.com link into the blog. This enabled whoever was reading the blog, would be able to watch the video on the blog without looking for it on youtube.com. I then did this again in my thriller analysis of ‘Red Dragon’. I embedded a video on youtube.com of the trailer for ‘Red Dragon’.
Also by the blog I was able to insert images which were found by a browser. This technique was the most useful to me as there were a lot of images inserted into my blog. I think this became very useful in most of my posts, such as the report film certification. This was because if no one had heard of the film classes, they would instantly recognise the logo of the certificate as they always displayed during the showing of a film.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
From working in my group, I have learnt a few skills to cooperating with a filming group. One of them is the quality of acting. When we did our film, we thought doing one take would not be enough. For this we would try to do at least three different good shots of a sequence, then this would give options in the editing.
Also I found it very useful working in a group for the filming. If it were just one person operating each role, the film may not have too much variety and creativity. Instead we all gave in our opinion and decided which was the best for each what we were deciding. For example, we were able to use wide range of camera angles and shots when we all fed in different ideas.
When using the camera we learnt a lot of news techniques. One of these which we liked diong in the prelimniary task was the shot reverse shot. This was probably our camera shot that we used in the preliminary task, which we again used quite a lot of in the main project. We loved minxing and incorporating a varietyof camera shots and angles inton the film as it made the film better, and it also helped us develop a good level of creativity.
A peice if software which used as well was GarageBand. This was where we created our own composed music and applied it to a Charlie Chaplin sketch. Although we didn't compose our music in our project, it was still helpful and practical to learn these skills in case we would need them for any new projects in A2.
In conclusion, I believe the preliminary task has been very useful in terms of developing my film making skills. I learnt a good quality and variety of camera techniques, editing skills and much more. These were especially useful as we needed them for our main project. Without the basic skills and techniques which we learnt, we may not have made a good peice of work.
Monday, 19 March 2012
Target audience age certification
For our film we have classed it a certificate 12A. We feel that is suitable becuse, there are few discrete references linking to illegal dealing and violence, but does not actually show any footage of this. For example, one of our scenes features the main protagonists engaged in some violence, however no violent actions are actually being shown. This means it is not too violent or explicit to be clssed as 15 or 18 but, there are still some references which may be unsuitable for children under the age of 8.
The BBFC (British board of film certification) is the official council which gives all films an age certification, classing into for suitable categories.
The first classification is U. This means that the film is suitable for ages above 4, without being accompanied by an adult. This age certification is most common computer animations, and family films. 'Finding Nemo' and 'The Santa Claus' are examples of U classifications as
not explicit messages are shown or hindered.
.
Another film certificaton is PG (parental guidance). This basically means that the majority of the film is suitable for most ages, however they may be a few scenes unsuitable for young children. For this, children under the age of 8 must be accompanied by an adult in order to watch these films.
12A is another film certificate, which besically mean persons under the age of 12 must be accompanied by an adult. Films under this category are considered to be unsuitable for very young people. Adults who are accompanying the uderage children must be a minimum age of 18. Films under this category can contain mature themes, discrimination, soft drugs, moderate swear words, infrequent strong language and moderate violence/sex references.
The next certificate is 12. This is similar to 12A, however children under 12 cannot watch these films even if accompanied by an adult. The factors which differentiate this classification from 12A is that there may be some extra material which is inappropriate for children under 12. Genres such as action can be sometimes put under this category, as long as the images shown aren't extreme.
15 is the next category. This means people younger than the age of 15 cannot see these films. These films can contain; adult themes, hard drugs, strong language, sexual references, and undetailed sex activity. Alot of thrillers are put under this catergory as there are alot of thriller plots relating to gun violence, hard drug useage, and strong language.
18 is another film classification. Nobody under the age of 18 can view these films. Most explicit restrictions are not limited in these films, excluding sexual images where are some limitations. Horrors are commonly put under this category as there are scenes which show strong aggressions, and gory scenes.
The final BBFC certificate is R18 (restricted 18). This means films under this age certificate cannot be shown at any cinema and only in adult +18 stores. This because explicit and unrestricted pornographic scenes can be seen. Adult films are always classed under this category.
Our media film is a thriller, but we have concluded that it should be classed as a 12A. We do have one scene which does show violence, however we edited it out as it was not needed. There are hinderences to gang violence in the film, however no clips which actually display this, so therefore we do not feel it should be in any other age certificate other than 12A.
The BBFC (British board of film certification) is the official council which gives all films an age certification, classing into for suitable categories.
The first classification is U. This means that the film is suitable for ages above 4, without being accompanied by an adult. This age certification is most common computer animations, and family films. 'Finding Nemo' and 'The Santa Claus' are examples of U classifications as
not explicit messages are shown or hindered.
.
Another film certificaton is PG (parental guidance). This basically means that the majority of the film is suitable for most ages, however they may be a few scenes unsuitable for young children. For this, children under the age of 8 must be accompanied by an adult in order to watch these films.
12A is another film certificate, which besically mean persons under the age of 12 must be accompanied by an adult. Films under this category are considered to be unsuitable for very young people. Adults who are accompanying the uderage children must be a minimum age of 18. Films under this category can contain mature themes, discrimination, soft drugs, moderate swear words, infrequent strong language and moderate violence/sex references.
The next certificate is 12. This is similar to 12A, however children under 12 cannot watch these films even if accompanied by an adult. The factors which differentiate this classification from 12A is that there may be some extra material which is inappropriate for children under 12. Genres such as action can be sometimes put under this category, as long as the images shown aren't extreme.
15 is the next category. This means people younger than the age of 15 cannot see these films. These films can contain; adult themes, hard drugs, strong language, sexual references, and undetailed sex activity. Alot of thrillers are put under this catergory as there are alot of thriller plots relating to gun violence, hard drug useage, and strong language.
18 is another film classification. Nobody under the age of 18 can view these films. Most explicit restrictions are not limited in these films, excluding sexual images where are some limitations. Horrors are commonly put under this category as there are scenes which show strong aggressions, and gory scenes.
The final BBFC certificate is R18 (restricted 18). This means films under this age certificate cannot be shown at any cinema and only in adult +18 stores. This because explicit and unrestricted pornographic scenes can be seen. Adult films are always classed under this category.
Our media film is a thriller, but we have concluded that it should be classed as a 12A. We do have one scene which does show violence, however we edited it out as it was not needed. There are hinderences to gang violence in the film, however no clips which actually display this, so therefore we do not feel it should be in any other age certificate other than 12A.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)