Evalutation question 7

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

The transition from the Preliminary task To our final AS Media Coursework has been a learning curb in all aspects. In the progression between Preliminary task and Final Product i have learnt a lot about editing, the way a camera function and how to create abstract shots which will help create a persona in the media text.

The progression between the 2 media tasks has been structured in the way we researched other films such as Layer Cake, Snatch and The Departed. Than we heard another movie which we looked at in great depth which was The GoodFellas which had a very powerful opening scene which gave us the idea of having action. After that we took into account the demographics of our certain opening such as age group which we want to target and the rating which the film will be. The rating of other films in the action and gangster genre were either 12 and over, 15 and over or 18 and over, generally the better films were either 15 or 18 and over. This wasn't really considered in our preliminary task, which shows how we have learnt.

Once we started filming our final product we first tried without a tripod and quickly realised some of our shots were to wobbly, therefore when we did our second day of filming we made sure that the tripod was being used. This made the clarity and the focus of the shots much better and the continuity wasn't a issue.



Editing was also very important, for the preliminary task we used Vegas movie maker which was a bit to simple and we used only a camera that went to only 480p quality. For our rough cut and final video we used IMovie on my macbook which was simple and had all the editing options that we needed. We also used a Nikon D5100 which filmed a 1080HD quality which helped with making a really detailed and clear shot. The editing was an ongoing process over 4 days to make sure everything was done to our satisfaction such as the spelling of all the title was right and the music came in at the right times. The camera gave us many special effects such as this picture which is the final shot in our video:

An example of using IMovie and it's ability to edit shots once they are taken is this shot. We blurred the edges of the shot so that it creates a focus point, being the hostage in the garage. This also helps our audience as they are guided by the use of this type of editing to one specific point on the screen which is the character who is sitting on the chair. Not only the blur around the edges of the shot but the prop we use in this shot is very significant as it creates a sense of mystery especially having it in the first 20 seconds which makes the audience think, maybe try and predict what will happen next.

Evaluation question 6

Evaluation question 5

Evaluation question 4

Who would be the audience for you media product?

The desired target audience that we aim for is 15 and over due to there being some graphically violent parts. I think it's better not putting a cap on the age for example 15-30 years, as people any age like a good action movie.

The first step in deciding our initial audience was watching opening scenes to other films that we wanted to echo, from our research generally most movie were rated 18+ with a few 15+. The next step was to categorise the films we researched and discussing why they were given the rating they have. We found that our opening scene wasn't that violent, but contained guns and someone being shot, we realised that if it was a 12 the target audience was bigger therefore more people could watch it. The demographics of our video were highly important as we wanted to get it perfect.

The next step was deciphering if we were going to aim it at males or females, this was a huge dilemma as we originally said its just for men as only men like action movies. However we did a small questionnaire to 5 girls with all different personalities. The first 2 girls (Emilia and Liv) they both said they don't mind watching a action movie, the second 2 girls (Lily and Meg) both said they would hate to watch a action movie because there is to much blood, finally the last girl (Tash) said she likes action movies. All 5 girls were over 15 so they have seen previous action movies and gave their opinion to us.

Finally the last step was to incorporate age into our shot types, dialogue and props used as we cant use strong violence and bad language in a 12 so we had to work out our films demographics before shooing.

Evaluation question 3

Evaluation question 2

This is a video of my group talking about how our media product represents particular social groups. Our aim as it being a action gangster kind of movie would be a large audience from the age of 15 and over, but would appeal to anyone who enjoys action if your male or female it doesn't matter. The construction of our characters was quiet important as that would be one of the main ways which we represent a particular social group, and this video is just us discussing our thoughts.

Evaluation question 1

1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The Title of the Film:

The title of our film was difficult, as we needed an appropriate title name for the type of movie and the content, but we also had to work out how to display it and when. Our group finally came to the conclusion that we would call it 'The Proposition'. We did a lot of brain storming to finally come to this choice we had other names such as 'Last standing' and 'Exposure' but these just didn't suit our criteria. The next challenge was how we were going to display it in all the frames. We downloaded this awesome font called Urban Jungle which is perfect for our target audience and the genre, the font looks like its got bullet holes in and helps create a action, murderer atmosphere. We decided to have the final shot with the title so the audience have to watch the whole trailer to find out the name.

Setting/Location:

The reason why we chose my house for filming was because we had building works which made it a good place for action and we had a garage also with a electric door which was great for holding a hostage. Also our shooting schedule projected 3 hours of filming therefore we need a place to be warm and sleep at, again my house was perfect for that as it has 9 bedrooms.  The final reason why we needed to film it at my house was that we had driving scenes and my car was at home, also the roads were flooded which looked good when driving around.


Costumes/Props:

The costumes and props that we needed were very selective as we believed that good acting and props just give the final video makes it more appealing, therefore we wanted to use real guns to make it as realistic as possible. The costumes we used were easy to get suits, and gangster clothing such as tracksuits hoodies and balaclavas, but we used this to portray a particular class. We specifically made the gangster boss a stereotypical image with a suit and walking around with his 2 hench men. The gangsters also were stereotypes with tracksuits and hoodies. From our feedback from our rough cut, the audience didn't think our characters looked enough like there job, so for our time of re-shooting we made sure that our characters were stereotypes so that the audience found it easier to work out who is who. The props such as the gun and the car were the hardest to film as the car was always moving and to get a in car shot, it was hard to keep the camera still, the gun was hard as it was heavy and potentially quiet dangerous. Also the props we use link with the location as  have 3 guns at home which worked well in our final video. The guns we used were toy guns, Air soft guns but were not fired just as a prop.

Editing:

The editing at first was using all the clips in chronological order, but than we decided to change it due to there being to much footage. We decided to spice it up a little by creating flash backs with shots from driving away from the house to a white screen and a pause than footage at the garage where the hostage was murdered.

Camera:

 The camera we used was Nikon 5200 which is a very sophisticated camera with many options. We also used a optical lens so we could zoom in while videoing, while maintaining a high definition finish. We also used a tripod to keep the camera steady while filing  I chose to use this camera as the end product would be in a very high resolution so the quality will be the best.

Sound:

 I decided not to use any digetic sound or dialogue between the characters as it wasn't necessary in our opening scene, instead we used non-digetic sound which created the atmosphere for us. The music we chose suited the sequence of events which was very satisfying  The reason why I didn't use any dialogue is firstly we couldn't really capture good quality sound while it was snowing, when we filmed, also we didn't have a microphone so all you could hear was snow hitting the cameras microphone.