Evaluation

With the main task video filmed, edited and completed, I now have the task of evaluating my every process, in the form of seven evaluation questions below:

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?



1. There are many ways my media product uses, develops and challenges the forms and conventions of that from real media products, such as my storyline, genre and the representation of the characters. The Mise-En-Scene of my media product was the most important part of making it realistic and authentic like existing media products of this type such as The Bourne Ultimatum which we researched. Our storyline was the main thing that distinguishes our media product as that of existing ones as appose to a home movie. The whole idea of stealing government files, and secret agents makes it seem more realistic to the suited genre. Another thing is the representation of the characters; we based our characters on that seen in the existing openings we have studied, in the pictures below you can see how our opening is similar to that of the The Bourne Ultimatum's.

The pictures highlighted in red are that from our media product, and the pictures to the side or above them are stills taken from the Bourne films. As you can see, the sets of pictures are almost identical, showing how our media product uses, develops and challenges the forms and conventions of that from real media products.


2. My media product represents particular Social Groups such as our target audience of males aged between 15-50. This is because of the genre of our opening, which is action. Films of this genre are usually watched more by male audiences in my specific age range simply because they look up to the characters they see and the things they do, and aspire to be like them. This is why all of the characters in our opening are Males, so our target audience can relate to them. Our media product also contains mainly male orientated activities within the storyline such as fighting, guns, secret agents and freerunning which is a male dominated art/sport. The age we have portrayed our characters as being, which is around 20-30, also represents people of that age group which are in the age range of our target audience.



3. The main type of media institution that might distribute my media product will be that of low budget British institutions such as Film4 or BBC Films.

Film4 is a film production institution, owned by Channel 4, and is responsible for creating masterpieces such as Academy Award winning 'Slumdog Millionaire' and the story of a footballing legend, 'Looking For Eric'. Film4 develop and co-finance smart and distinctive feature films which is why they would be an institution to distribute a media product such as mine. Another British based film institution is that owned by the BBC, another popular channel of British television. BBC Films have released films such as 'The Men Who Stare At Goats' and 'The Damned United', which are popular low budget British films.


4. The target audience for my product is mainly males between the ages of 15-50, as research shows this group of people usually enjoy action films the most. The fast pace action scenes, containing chases, fights and explosions etc, usually attract younger males because they look up to the characters they see acting within these types of films.

When deciding on the ideal target audience, it is important to think about if the content of the film is suitable for certain age groups. The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) was set up in 1912 and is an independent, non-governmental body that oversees all film content, and puts classifications on it before it is released to cinema or video/dvd.


The BBFC classifies films under certain guidelines, the general ones are listed below:

1. The film is not allowed to conflict the law or have been created by commiting a criminal offence.
2. The film is not allowed to cause harm to the viewer, either to their behaviour or morally, such as encouraging anti-social attitudes or distorting the viewers sense of right and wrong.
3. Whether the content is acceptable for the particular age group in terms of things like bad language.

The BBFC also work with official government legislations, such as the Human Rights Act (1998), The Licensing Act (2003) and The Video Recordings Act (1984). Factors which affect the rating of a film consist of Horror, Imitable Behaviour, Language, Nudity/Sex, Theme and Violence.

Through extensive research into the criteria of film classification, I have rated my own media product as a 12, as it presents some scenes of violence and at one point emphasises on an injury with blood present.

5. My media piece attracted the audience in a series of ways, and the Feedback I regained from the people who viewed it helped show this. We recieved alot of comments and feedback during the post production stage and also after the audience had viewed the final piece. When editing our opening, we recieved some feedback in order to make changes and add bits they thought would make it better. They had told us by adding titles and making a name up to add at the start (TFR Productions), that would make it look more like an opening.

We also showed our final film opening to 12 different people and then gave them a simple Questionnaire to fill out afterwards asking them is the storyline was understandable, if the genre was clear and also what rating they would give it, in terms of BBFC classifications. The results are shown below within pie and bar charts:

6. From the process of constructing my media product, I have learnt alot about the technologies of movie making. From the pre production processes of filming and taking pictures, to the Post Production stages during editing. Filming is not something I am new to, as I am part of a FreeRunning performing group, I have filmed fellow team members performing, so when it came to filming my media product, I knew about camera angles, movements, etc. Despite having previous knowledge, I still learnt about new things such a camera composition and framing, knowing how much room to give for the people/objects within the shot and where to have them.



However, When it came to the post production process, I had not edited anything on this level before, the most I had done was a small personal video on windows movie maker, so the process was interesting for me. For the editing stage, we used the software, Sony Vegas Platinum 9.0. I had never used this before, so I had fun playing about with all of the effects, transitions and functions it has. It was quite easy to pick up and after a while soon became second nature; I was soon trimming clips, using effects such as fades and editing audio.




7. I feel as if I have come a long way in terms of what I have learnt from my Preliminary Task to my Final Media Product. I have learnt things such as effective use of camera angles/shots/movements/composition and how to edit the video clips using a sophisticated editing software.
When I evaluated my Preliminary Task, I came up with a list of improvement suggestions (shown below), and during the course of creating my media product, I managed to take these onboard and incorporate them into my work.



Improvement Suggestions
-Some shots we needed to use a tripod, as the camera wasn't always steady
-Use different camera angles/shots/movement
-Use more sophisticated editing software
-Spend longer planning so we know what each shot will look like before its filmed
-Look into props and characters in more detail
-Make sure the location is clear of other people
-Check the shots flow before leaving so re-filming isn't required

During the course of filming my final media product we made sure a tripod was always used to keep the camera steady and give the desired steady movement required, apart from the fight scene, where we purposly dismounted the camera from the tripod to give a shakey effect. We also used a wider range of camera shots, angles and movements, such as over the shoulder shots, high and low angled shots, panning shots, tracking shots, point-of-view shots, plus more. This time around we also used Sony Vegas to edit our video which did make it possible for us to do everything we wanted to do when editing. During our planning stage, when came up with things like Storyboards, characters, loactions and props, we spent a long time thinking through the things we could do more, so we knew exactly what we was going to do without wasting any time, we also drew up pictures on the computer which you can see in my storyboard section. In terms of the flow of shots, we went through on the camera re-playing shots to make sure they did flow, however we did miss one part, meaning it didnt flow as well as we wanted, however it isnt that noticable due to our editing.
Overall, I think I and my group have come a long way from our Preliminary Task to what we have achieved now, and that is clearly visable through the juxtaposition of the two final pieces.

Character Representation Analysis

Our Cast consisted of all of our group plus two other friends; making six of us in total. As our opening sequence is an action, we split the cast in two, following typical action conventions of Good vs Evil. On the good side, I acted as the Protagonist, along with group member Alex Dimmock and one of our mates who isn't in our group, Oli Gregory. On the bad side, was the guard/agent type characters, played by group members Chris Gill and Daniel Wogan, aswell as a another friend, Danny Goodman. We chose to make good and bad characters as it follows typical Conventions found within action films. We also made sure we had authentic looking costumes to fit with our Genre, I for one had specifiaclly ordered an airsoft tactical/assault vest, simply for the fact it adds effect to the opening, and makes it look more authentic.


1. Luis Mapes - I starred as the protagonist on the 'good side', who's aim was to break into a government styled building, in order to steal information being held by corrupt government agents. My dark, all black costume, shows the fact that I am trying to stay undetected, as the opening is also set at night in dark conditions. The fact I am wearing a tactical bulletproof vest, also shows danger, as there is a chance I may be shot.
The character I play is also very organised, being equipped with all sorts of gadgets aswell as being directed through a headset by a right hand man, this shows he is very knowledgable and knows what he is doing. I am also a skilled FreeRunner, so during the opening I chose to incorporate it in, showing that the character I play is also agile and willing to do anything to escape.


2. Alex Dimmock - Alex plays Luis' right hand man, and is portrayed as a Computer Nerd; who he is able to hack into government CCTV, Passwords and Files, in which he uses to help and direct Luis on his mission. Again, the use of an all black costume, shows that although what he is doing is for a good purpose, it is also illegal, and therefore he wants to remain undetected. The headset and laptop he uses, aswell as his diaglogue, is made to stand out, in order to show a clear link between him and Luis.

3. Oli Gregory - Oli plays a Scout type character, who ends up saving Luis from being killed at the end of the opening. We got him to wear a balaclava and gloves, so every part of his body is covered, the effect we wanted from this was to add suspence by hiding his identity. The fact his weapon of choice is a sniper rifle, also shows he is skilled with firearms.

4. Daniel Wogan - Dan plays the leader of the corrupt government agents, who attempts to kill Luis by shooting him at the end of the opening. We chose him to take the lead role of the government guards, as he fits the role well being the biggest member of our group, he looks the most dominant. To make him look official, as if he did work for the government, we dressed him up in a suit and tie, as that shows he is formal.

5. Chris Gill - Chris plays another security guard who attempts to stop Luis at the lift, he is also the character that takes part in the fight scene and holds the card key to Luis' escape. He wears the same costume as Dan, apart from the jacket and tie, this is to show he isn't as high up in terms of rank and hierarchy. This is why we chose him to take part in the fight scene.

6. Danny Goodman - Danny was an extra we decided to use right at the start to add some suspense to the opening. We made Danny to look like an easy target on purpose in order to show the audience what Luis' character is like, by taking him out within the first few seconds.

Storyboard

With the location seen, we got to work on the Storyboard. We already knew our genre (action) and the typical conventions that go with it, along with inspiration from watching The Bourne Ultimatum's Opening, we knew the things we had to include.

We came out with a basic idea that we got 6 people to star in the opening and split them into good and bad sides, following the convetions of our genre. On the bad side, will be a group of corrupt government agents who are protecting a top-secret computer file, that if brought to the publics attention, will reveal what unprincipled things they have been doing. And on the good side will be a team of people trying to stop the agents and bring what they have done to justice. I have broken the storyboard/storyline down into detailed sections below:




The scene opens with the protagonist (Luis Mapes) breaking into the building and taking out the first guard played by Danny Goodman. The location also had a CCTV monitor at the front desk, so we are going to use that to show Luis breaking into the building. We decided to open with this, to straight away add suspense and get the auidience interested in what was happening.

After taking out the first guard (Danny), Luis puts in an earpiece and asks for directions from his right hand man played by Alex Dimmock. Alex is located at a seperate location to Luis but will communicate to him to give him information when needed.
We are going to use a series of cuts and voice overs to show a clear link between Luis and Alex, as well as physical props such as microphone
headsets and earpieces.

Alex directs Luis to the office with the computer that has the file he is trying to steal, the room is locked so Luis breaks down the door and enters. The chose the idea of breaking the door open to keep the audience entertained, as well as showing the limits Luis' character will go to in order to geth what he's come for.






Inside the office, Luis hacks into the government computer with help from Alex, and steals the file he is after. We are going to film this using are range of camera shots such as over-the-shoulder and close-ups, when editing, we are also going hold the shots to make the audience watch closely to what is going on as this is the main part of the opening.





Meanwhile, the boss of the government agents, Dan, finds Danny knocked out in his chair where Luis left him, and calls for back-up. Alex happens to see this over CCTV and warns Luis to get out fast as he has been caught. At this point we will increase the volume of the music as all of the dialogue will have finished, to build pace and add tension to the actions about to take place.






Now Luis has the file he came for and knows he has been caught, he cuts of Alex by taking out his earpiece and attempts to escape, but as he leaves the office, he is confronted by Dan and Chris, both holding their guns. We've chosen to do this as it leaves the audience thinking what is Luis going to do next therefore making them want to watch on. We are either going to film this part from Luis' point-of-view (P.O.V) or over his shoulder to keep the viewer on Luis' side and complying with the 180 degree rule.





Luis decides to take Dan and Chris on and runs at them, sliding straight past and under them, and towards the lift. Even though the lift isn't a realistic choice for an escape, we wanted to use it for the next fight scene, so we got Chris to cover the stairs, giving him a valid reason to take it.

With Chris having seen Luis take the lift, he runs up the stairs and waits for Luis at the top. As the lift arrives, Luis sees Chris holding a gun to him, so he moves out of the way and disarms him. There is then a quick fight scene, where Luis takes Chris out before leaving him knocked out inside of the lift. We are going to film this in the same style as the Bourne Ultimatum, with quick cuts and movement, as well as the camera being handheld to give a 'shakey' effect.







After taking out Chris, Luis takes his key card and uses it to open the door and into the west wing where a fire exit is located. We are going to use a series of panning shots to show Luis as he runs through the west wing towards the fire exit before opening it. On the other side of the exit is a set of spiral stairs which lead towards the ground level.






Instead of going down the stairs, Luis jumps from the top down to the ground, rolling and then running off. We decided to do this as its more dramatic which fits with our genre and also because it incorporates some of the FreeRunning skills Luis has.

As Luis continues to run around the building towards the car park, he unaware he is being followed, so just as he thinks he has escaped, he is shot in the back of the shoulder by government agents leader, Dan. In the post production and editing stage, we are going to use a realistic gun shot effects, to make the mise-en-scene of the shooting authentic.




As soon as Luis has been shot, it fades in to a P.O.V shot from Luis' perspective of him looking at the ground, before he is turned over to see Dan stood pointing a gun at him, ready to finish him off. When we film this, we are going to get Luis to breath heavily into the camera and shake it, in order to intensify the audiences knowledge of his injury. When editing this part as well, we are going to use transitions such as fades and adding blur to make the P.O.V shot look better.



To add a final twist at the end, the screen goes blank and all you can hear is a gunshot, a second later, an image re-appears showing Dan having been shot in the head. From that shot we will cut to a mid-shot of Oli who lowers his gun from his sight and say the words, 'Target Down'. This is to show the audience that he has just shot Dan, therefore saving Luis. The reason we did this was to confuse the audience so when we they find out that Luis hasn't been shot, and instead its Dan, they find themselves in a state of shock or excitement.

Location Report

Now having an idea of what we wanted to do, before we could start making the storyboard, we thought it would be a good idea to find our location first, so we knew what we had to work with. Taking inspiration again from 'The Bourne Ultimatum', we had a rough idea of what we pictured our location to look like. We wanted a large office styled building that could pass as an official government property, so it would fit in with our Genre. Fortunatly for us, Chris, one of our group members, proposed we use his dads work place, at News International in Hampton, Peterborough. So when we got the call back saying we could, we went straight over to look around and take pictures: When we first saw the location, it was exactly what we had imagined, and contained all the facilities we needed to film the story we had in mind. The building was very large on the inside and has two levels. The outside is also very large, with a car park at the front and fire exit routes that lead out from the back of the building around to the front. The building also has a lift which we had the idea of using for our fight scene, which was perfect for us, as it is also right next to the stairs, working out brilliant for what we wanted to do. So with the location seen, we can now work on our story, and adapt it around the building.

Research into Existing Opening Sequences

During my first term at school, we looked at some existing opening sequences, to familiarise ourselves with what you typically find. We took a detailed look into the openings of 'Dirty Harry' & 'The Usual Suspects', which I explain furthur in a previous post in my Preliminary Task section.

For our opening sequence, we decided to look at some other existing examples, more suited to our decided Genre. The main opening sequence that we took alot of inspiration from was that of 'The Bourne Ultimatum'. Looking into it we could see a wide range of Camera Shots, Angles & Movements that were effectively used to highten what was going on, especially whenever there is fighting or chasing. This then gave us alot of ideas about what we could do, and different ways in which we could film it. Whilst watching the opening sequence closely, we noticed that during any fighting parts, the camera deliberatly shook to add to the Cinematic Effect, so we decided to adapt the idea and incorporate in into our own opening sequence. One other thing we did think worked well was the Bourne soundtrack, composed by John Powell, as it fitted the genre of the film, and helped to add suspense and build the pace where needed. Below, shows my detailed notes from my analysis of the opening:

Camera Angles/Shots/Movement

• The scene opens with a close-up, tracking shot of Jason's footsteps as he walks in the snow


• There is extremely fast camera movement and panning of the setting


• The camera seems to look as if it has been taken of the tripod and manually held to give a 'shakey' effect


• A wide range of tracking shots are used as Jason escapes from the train, following him throughout


• Camera movement is very fast pace throughout until the end where some monologue is exchanged between charcters


• A close-up is used to show the significance of the running water and how it is linked to his flashback


• During his flashback, where Jason is being tortured, a high-angled shot is used to show that jason is weak and inferior at this point


• An over-the-shoulder shot is used when tracking the officers as the enter at the end of the opening

Mise-En-Scene

• The setting is displayed in text at the start of the opening as being in Moscow, Russia


• Police Officers after Jason are talking in russian (translated at the bottom in subtitles), making the location/setting believable


• All of the main characters and backing actors costumes are authentic, with all of them wearing long coats and winter clothing, matching the continuity of the snowy weather


• The scene is set at night and is very dark


• The chemist or drugs store Jason breaks into is clearly identified by the audience because of the worldwidely used green cross logo


• During the opening Jason has a shot wound to his shoulder, this is apparent and more realistic through the use of make-up and artificial blood

Sound

• At the start of the opening when the location text is displayed, a Non-Diagetic typing sound is played


• John Powell's - Berlin Foot Chase is the soundtrack played at the start of the opening, the music is fast pace and played by a bouble bass, which gives of a sound that builds the tension


• There is alot of shouting coming from the Officers to show panic


• A Non-Diagetic breaking sound is used as Jason jumps of the moving train


• When Jason is about to have his flashback, the sound changes dramatically, the music dies down into a slow drum beat, then nothing and the water coming from the tap is really loud and made to echo


• Voice-overs are widely used during his flashback


• The sound of Jason cocking the handgun is intensified to give of a sense of danger

Editing

• When Jason is trying to evade the police, the action is very quick pace and therefore quick cuts are used between each shot


• The camera zooms in to focus of the green cross medical symbol


• During the flashback, crossfades are used between shots


• Also throughout the flashback, most of the images are blurred, and the screen is purposely made to be really white around the outer edges, with flashing lights added also in the post production stage.


• During the fighting scene, the camera shots are quickly cut from one to another, juxtaposed to that of the scene where the officer is pleading for his life; shots in this scene are held for longer due to dialogue, this is because the director wants the audience to listen.

Typical Film Conventions

Adventure

• Exciting storylines with new experiences


• Exotic locations/settings


• Typically contain searches or expeditions

Comedies

• Light-hearted plots


• Designed to amuse the audience and provoke laughter


• This is done by exaggerating situations, actions, relationships, languages and characters

Drama

• Drama's usually have serious storylines or plots


• Characters, settings and stories are portrayed as being realistic life situations


• Drama's tend to use minimum effects and rely solely on acting

Horror

• Designed to frighten and shock the audience aswell as being entertaining


• They tend to captivate the dark side of life


• Things typically found within horrors are blood, death, murder, villains, victims, isolated settings, monsters, weapons, darkness, violence, gore and chasing
  

Typical Conventions found within our Genre:

Action

• The battle between good and evil/justice and injustice, and how good always triumphs over evil


• How the crime is always the core of the narrative


• The use of fast/up-tempo music to create tension or suspense


• The growing sense of threat/danger and the excitement of pursuit


• Sharp changes of camera angles to build excitement and pace (usually found during fight or chase scenes within action films)


• The use of lighting used, to create shadows which creates a tone of mystery and uncertainty

These are just typical conventions found within action films. We will work to include all of these within our opening to help the audience distinguish the genre of our film opening.

180 Degree Rule

The 180 Degree Rule is a basic imperative when filming which means two people in the same room/scene always have the same left-right relationship to each other. This is avoid disorientation and confusion for the audience. The picture belows show an imaginary axis in which the camera ins't allowed to pass over. This works the same way if a single person is walking, it is confusing if you are filming them from one side, walking left to right, cut to the other side, which looks as if they walking right to left. A shot taken from the opposite side is called a reverse angle.

Synopsis/Proposals

After being given the task to create our own film Opening Sequence, we decided the first thing to do was sit down as a group and talk about what we wanted to do. We talked about every part of it from Genre, to storylines and plots, location ideas and characters. After an extensive discussion, we all agreed on an Action genre. Due to myself and other members of our group being FreeRunners, we had the idea of incorporating our skills into the opening. That would also mean that we would all be starring in the opening, which we agreed was a good idea, simply because it gave us a chance to perform, as well as film the parts we wern't in, making the experience the same for everyone in our group. With all that in mind, we had to decide on what the storyline was going to be, and where we would film it.....

Introduction

After having completed my Preliminary Task and gaining some experience of the official task in hand, me and my group now need to start planning for our own film opening. The next load of posts will explain step by step how we going to do this, explaining aspects of our research into existing film openings, Genre Codes and Conventions, our Synopsis and proposals, the location report, a character representation analysis aswell as Storyboards & Shooting Scripts.