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

I feel like I have progressed a lot more since filming this preliminary task. I feel like my camera work, editing skills and ability to frame a shot have all improved and benefited since the preliminary task.

In the final film frame on the left we can see a shot reverse shot here. Shot reverse shot is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes they are looking at each other. This is a good shot to use when characters are in conversation or saying dialogue to each other. In the preliminary task on the right, we have a mid shot of the two characters mid-conversation. I think it looks much more professional and technical as a shot reverse shot as opposed to the mid shot as shown in the second frame. The shot reverse shot gives good continuity of the action on screen.

This is match on action from our final film. Our understanding of match on action is a lot better since the preliminary task which contained little match on action. Match on action is when something happens in the scene, then when there is a cut, the same piece of action is going on. This helps continuity and helps the audience understand what's going on. In these frames we have 'The Boss' picking up a phone, and then answering it.

We obeyed the 180 degree rule in both the preliminary and the actual film. The 180 degree rule is a basic guideline in film making which states that two characters in the same scene should always have the same left/ right relationship to each other. We kept this rule and did not cross the imaginary axis connecting the two characters as to not confuse our audience.

We used many different camera shots within our final film whereas our preliminary was very basic. In our final film we included: 

• Long shots
• Mid shots
• Close ups
• High angle shots
• Low angle shots
• Shot reverse shot
• Match on action
• Obeyed the 180 degree rule
• Establishing shot
• Panning and Tracking

In our Preliminary we only had: 

• Long shot
• Mid shot
• Match on Action
• Obeyed the 180 degree rule

We thought we had used our camera work skills effectively and it made the film seem more realistic and professional. 

We used editing to the extent of our ability. We used many slide transitions like fade in and outs for footage and titles. We increased the pace of editing in the chase scene to give the audience the impression its more action packed.

Altogether I thought we managed to combine the two technical aspects well to produce a realistic film piece.

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

This is some of the technology, websites and programmes we used in our media coursework. We used all of these programmes to help film, edit, distribute around the internet for feedback. Each piece of technology was extremely helpful in the creation of our film product.

How did I attract/ address my audience?

Who would be the audience for my media product?

This is a picture of a typical teenager that I think would be interested in our media product.

From being in a similar age bracket and included in the target audience for this film i can base what kinds of taste the target audience may have with relevance to me. My favourite shops are HMV, Gamestation, Game and Topman. I like listening to Rock music, Punk, Indie and Pop. My favourite Tv programme is Scrubs ( a comedy show). I like wearing Jeans and hoodies from places like Topman and Next. My favourite genre of film is action or comedy.

I think this is the type of audience that may want to see our film as the action genre is quite popular within our age bracket of 15+. The action genre is exciting, explosive and gives adrenaline rushes to the audience which is exactly what people our age like.

What kind of media institution might distribute my media prouduct and why?

Script of what kind of media institution might distribute my media product and why?

Hey guys, I’m Robert Brown, part director and camera man for the film Organisation XIII.

What we just saw there was our Production company name and logo which is called Panther Studios. The logo itself is simply just a panther hiding behind tall grass making fearsome roaring sounds. This is similar to the Metro Goldwyn Mayers logo of a lion roaring. MGM have made many brilliant action films including spy films like the James Bond series. A production company is responsible for physical production of new media. The company may also be directly responsible for the funding of the production

A film distributor is a company or an individual responsible for releasing films to the public either through cinema or for home viewing. Popular distribution companies are Buena Vista International, Columbia Pictures and 20^th Century Fox. Some of the films 20^th Century Fox have distributed are Avatar, Ice age and Star Wars. To mass distribute our media product I think we would use Universal as they have distributed many independent film titles and have a greater knowledge of the smaller market. This is in contrast to 20^th century Fox that focus on distributing Hollywood blockbuster films.

As an independent film maker, I would have asked for funding from the UK film council. But with the closing down of the council, I would pitch my film idea to any major film studios ready to listen and talk to businesses that I think would want to sponsor my film.

The titles in this film are the names of the director, actors, screenplay set designers and other important roles within the making of this film. We tried to credit the people who helped make the idea of this film a reality and we responded in doing so how many other film production companies have done.

I think that our film is that similar to a James Bond spy- type movie and institutionally comparative to MGM production company.  However, I think that with the making of our own production company we can produce our films independently differing to MGM.

Thanks for listening.

How does my media product represent particular social groups?

           The image on the left is of ‘The Boss’ from our film Organisation XIII and the image on the right is of Michael Corleone from ‘The Godfather’. These two characters radiate a certain authority and power just from the way they sit and their body actions.        

          Both characters are dressed in a formal suit complete with tie. This can represent power, wealth, business and authority. Both characters look very smart and sleek in appearance.  

          Both characters have a serious expression on their face which suggests they are serious about their job.  They could be seen as looking down on others which makes them seem superior.
         They both have similar roles within their film of mafia boss/ group leader.

       Differences between these characters can be the way their hair is styled. The character on the left has his hair brushed more to the left which makes him seem cool but serious. The character on the right has his hair gelled backwards which makes him appear very professional.

       The character on the left is wearing a black suit which makes him seem more sinister whereas the character on the right is wearing a tweed suit which makes him seem more upper-class.

        The body action of the character on the left shows he is more insecure than the character on the right as he is more confined to himself whereas the other character seems more open and relaxed.

Screen shots of how my media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.

In what ways does my media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)

Screen Shot One

This shows the main title for our film. We wanted the film title to be effective and to stand out by being big and bold. Many successful action films have achieved this like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcisPdJVNl8.  We wanted the opening title to be explosive which I think we achieved with the sound effect of a gunshot playing as the title appears. This sets the scene for the rest of the movie and helps set the genre of action.

Screen Shot Two

This screen shot is of setting and location. As we can see we have shops in the background with a small alleyway tucked away between them. This is where the action begins to unfold as the characters run out of the public shopping district and down the alley way to car parks, free running spots and dead ends. This frame sets the scene well as the audience notices the tiny alleyway which takes us away from the shops and into a action packed chase scene. We tried to emphasise the use of this alleyway and how it takes us into a gritty, gang like area where danger soon occurs.

Screen Shot Three

The frame here demonstrates the use of costumes and props. We can see that the two assassins are both wearing suits and we tried to incorporate the action in like many action films, like this has done: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ti8x2jOh-6I. We used props like guns to make the film seem more realistic and more dramatic. The excitement of the chase scene is sped up by the use of fire arms and violence.

Screen Shot Four

The fourth shot shows camera work and editing. This shot is called a shot reverse shot which emphasizes conversation or dialogue. We tried to vary the use of camera shots in our film to make it look more professional and realistic. We used high angle shots, low angle shots, tracking shots, shot reverse shots, long shots, mid shots, close ups and many more. The use of editing I think is quite effective. We used many slide transitions to take the audience seemingly from one scene to the next. We increased the pace of editing in the chase scene to emphasise the action.

Screen Shot Five

This frame shows us the title font and style. We had titles fade in and out in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. We didn't want these titles to be as noticeable as the title of our film so there is a rather dramatic change in font size. We wanted these titles to slip in around the action, so the audience were aware of them being there but not distracted from the action on screen. The title font colour is white to make them clearly visible but not too distracting.

Screen Shot Six

This shows us the story and how the opening sets it up. The scene is set in a sinister looking board room, with an authoritative figure, three menacing people in suits and an envelope each sitting around a table. This could connote many things but the body language, the setting and the props used makes the story seem dramatic and like something thrilling could happen soon. This scene suggests that the three characters on the right of the screen are being briefed about a mission or something secret because of the seriousness of the characters expressions and the secrecy of the envelopes.

Screen Shot Seven

Frame seven suggests the genre of our film as we see two people mid-chase down an alley way. We can see the intense body movements, the seriousness of the characters and the audience receives the impression that this will be an action film. They will get this impression because chase scenes are fast paced, explosive, thrilling and everything about them suggests the action genre. Including a chase scene in the opening of our movie sets the rest of our film up as an action film.

Screen Shot Eight

This shows us how the characters are introduced. Here the audience can see a mid shot of 'The Boss' with a business like expression as he talks on the phone to someone. We can see that 'The Boss' is automatically portrayed as a very serious, determined character. 'The Boss' is shown in a suit and tie, with intelligent glasses on that suggests he knows what to do in any situation. The audience can sense he is a leading character in the story line and he has vast superiority.

Screen Shot Nine

This frame shows us the use of special effects. I created a production company for our film, with a panther roar behind the picture as the title fades in and out. The slide transitions show the panther clawing its way onto screen and fading out into the actual footage. I used a fearsome animal as our production company to suggest that the institution specialises in action based films. This can be compared to some of the James Bond films  that have the MGM production company trademark that plays before it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mqVvEaQefk.

If I Had To Do This Project Again, How Would I Improve Editing?

I would improve our editing in a number of ways:

• I would experiment with the lighting settings in Adobe Premiere.
• I would test new transitions for footage and titles
• I would increase the pace of editing in the action scenes.
• I would try to incorporate a few effects like auto colour and auto contrast.
• I could experiment with new themes for our movie
• I would toggle the volume levels to create perfect soundbridges and to have flowing music that matches the pace of the action.

I think we did considerably well cutting our footage in the most relevant places to ensure continuity and i think our title work could have been improved.

If I Had To Do This Project Again, How Would I Improve Camerwork?

I think we included a wide range of camera shots in our opening two minutes but I think we could have included:

• More establishing shots
• More match on action
• More control of camera steadiness
• Better panning shots
• Better tracking shots

I think the long shots, mid shots and close ups were good in our film aswell as the prevelence of our main character in the opening two minutes. The main character had most prevelence to show his importance within our opening two minutes.

If I Had To Do This Project Again, How Would I Improve Mise-en-scené?

I think our use of mise-en-scené was appropriate and all relevant to the genre of action we chose. If I had to do the opening two minutes again I would:

• Use a more realistic gun that makes a shooting sound to reduce sound editing
• Carry a gun holster for actor convenience so we do not have to re shoot several times
• Find costumes for the actors to wear that are more flexible and designed for the actions we required
• Think about the time of day we want to film and the light intensity outside
• Think about use of props in the board room scene

I think our costumes were effective and appropriate for the genre we chose. I think we need to think about lighting more carefully next time as the board room scene was lit quite darkly, and although it gave the atmosphere a feeling of seriousness, it hid the characters expressions. 

If I Had To Do This Project Again, How Would I Improve Sound?

I think we used a wide range of sound within our film. We used diegetic, non- diegetic, synchronous sound, ambience, sound effects, sound bridge and dialogue. I think we could improve the sound by:

• Thinking about the background noise in the town centre. Although it worked out to our advantage and wasn't too noisy, it could have been less noisy.
• Creating our own soundtrack with a tempo and instruments we want that will match our opening two minutes 
• Rehearsing the dialogue scenes to make them flawless
• Use the boom microphone in some areas where the sound is lost easily
• Researching more sound effects or create our own

We used a variety of sound  which was effective as it made the audience feel more immersed in the film and sound was continuous but I feel that if I had to re-do this project then I would try and create our own soundtrack and sound effects.

Statistical Target Audience of our Film.

After 117 views on youtube, our video statistics shows that our video is most popular with mostly males aged 25-34 and females aged 13-24.  We certified our film as a 15 rating and I think that the majority of our audience exceeded this age limit. I expected this film to be more popular with the male audience but it proved to be popular within a large age range with females aswell. We targeted the older age bracket and I think we achieved this. We targeted the older age bracket as our film was an action/ spy/ gangster film and would not have been as popular if it was rated as a 12 as there would not be as much action allowed. An action movie is known for violence and mild language, which is what the older target audience look for in an action film. If we certified this film as a 12 then a stereotypical audience would not have wanted to see this film.

Audience Feed back.

I would class the audience feedback we received back as mostly positive. The video shows feedback of our group presentation pitching our film to the class. The comments underneath are feedback from face book from when I posted the film on the website to gain audience feed back. From the comments on face book, we can see that the actors/screen play/ body actions/ mise-en-scené we chose were a huge success proven with comments such as'Loved this film, molly loved the way you killed Dave' and 'Molly, you own girl'. Some criticisms were the costume style of one agent where two commenter's said ' I think peter could have worn better shoes' and 'why would an agent wear bright red shoes'?   I think audience feedback is crucial for knowing what the audience expect and how to sell a product to them well.

Opening two minutes of our constructed film

Please remove the annotations and speech bubbles on this video to enjoy it properly.

Our presentation of the film Organisation XIII which gives the audience an overlook of the film.

Organisation xiii

View more presentations from Bobbieboy1000.

This presentation gives the audience an idea of what our film is about and how it may appeal to them. We talk about the characters/ actors involved, the plot, appeal to the audience and problems we encoutered whilst making it. If our film was distributed, this could be an extra feature as to how we gained our audience and how we came across and overcame problems.

Classification of our film

There are many ratings to choose from for our film. For our film to be successful we need to target the older audience. I chose to go with the rating..... 

I have personally rated this film as a 15 rating. A 15 rating would suggest that this film may contain offensive or emotionally harrowing scenes or strong language and violence. Some examples of 15 rated films are 'The Girl Next Door' and 'The Shawshank Redemption'. I would rate our film as a 15 as it contains mild language in the opening two minutes and if production of this film were to continue, I expect strong violence to be present as it is an action film. We wanted the film to appeal an older target audience like 15+ anyway so i think this would be an appropriate rating to give it. I feel that as a gangster/ assassin film, at least a 15+ rating would be ideal as we would be appealing to the larger market audience. A stereotypical male audience would not want to see a gangster film rated as 12. To attract a more adult audience, our film should be rated 15 so the stereotypical audience will be more inclined to see it as they know it will contain  swearing and action scenes and not a family friendly comedy gangster film.

Soundtrack and Music

 Adding sound to our film proved quite difficult and strenuous but we finally managed to achieve the desired outcome. As we had to reshoot several scenes, the soundtrack work already added to the film was seperated and merged with other sound effects when we added the new scenes. We had to start the sound editing again and managed to make it better than it was previously.
          
  We included fast paced action music for the chase scene and dramatic music for the board room scene.

  We included sound effects like gunshots as we could not create a realistic gunshot sound ourselves. We also added in the panther sound effect to our own made production title at the beginning. 

One actor was particually quiet during one scene and so we had to re-record his dialogue and dub it over the original scene. We used fast paced action music which souned quite funky to down-play the tension in the chase scene. The effect we wanted was for the scene to be serious but not too serious.

We faded the music in and out and created sound bridges from one scene to the next to take our audience seemingly from one shot to the next. The faded music seemingly slips away to reveal the dramatic conference room scene and fades back in to the action packed chase scene!

Sound editing had many issues but all were overcome and we achieved the desired effect.

Editing our film!

Hey there! Taking care of the last bit of editing now so our film is finished. We went out and re-filmed some shots for our film, this was a tricky task as we had to re-create our scene. After we finished re-filming our two shots we uploaded our footage onto Adobe Premier Elements.
Uing this programme edited our film cutting out bits we did not need and making our transitions and cuts as short as possible, as this is a common feature in action flms. The cuts were made so that we had some time left to fill in which was left for our studio/production company animation. Cutting our film and taking out things we didn't want (unwanted sounds, continuity errors and mistakes) took a lot of time as we had lots of footage to look at and make group decisions over what we wanted to keep.