Friday, 25 March 2016

Evaluation Question 2: How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

Our film is an indie film with a low budget. Indie films such as productions from Warp Films concentrate mainly on the representation of the working class population. This is similar to what we have done, we have filmed this in the North of England in Yorkshire. The North usually signifies the working class.

Age

Our primary target audience is 16-25. The actors in the production are both aged 16, however are aiming to represent an age group closer to 20. The costumes of the characters represent this age range as they are informal training/sports wear. The male protagonist is short, fair haired, well built and has a neutral-southern accent. The male antagonist is a binary opposite in the sense that he is tall and dark haired. The protagonist is wearing lighter coloured clothing, whereas the antagonist is wearing mainly dark colours with exception to his blue running shoes. The audience can choose to attach themselves to either of the characters, however both looks can appeal to the audience, with the protagonist possibly attracting the female gaze and attracting a secondary target audience.

Stereotyping

The fair-haired, attractive, well built, male protagonist presented by Daniel Craig in James Bond is a perfect example of an agent stereotype and we have replicated that with our male protagonist.
Daniel Craig as James Bond
The female sidekick of the protagonist is another example of a stereotype. James Bond inspired the Action genre with the character of 'M' in having a female sidekick and we have represented that in our film. Both of which have southern London accents, that are stereotypically middle class.

Gender

The only gender that appears on screen in our film opening is male. This is because the primary target audience is 16-25 year old males. If the characters on screen are male then it allows the audience to identify with the characters. Also, there is a female voice presented in the opening as well. This is to allow a possibility for a romantic relationship between the protagonist and the female. The male audience will watch the film for the action (as read on BFI, men were drawn to watch films with a strong action element.) whereas the females will watch for either the attractive protagonist or the romance element as females are much more likely to watch a romantic film.

Ethnicity

Our film contains exclusively caucasian characters. This is not intentional but for the reason that there is a lack of availability of other ethnic groups in our school and surrounding area. Thus meaning we may not appeal to the wider audience of multi-ethnic groups. In the successful production of Star Wars, every actor that appears on screen is white, with exception to the voice of Darth Vader. However, this did not appear to affect the popularity of the film as it made $461m in the US box office upon release.

Sexuality

Our film does not explore sexuality, however conventionally, most films are based upon the characters being heterosexual. In the full production of our film opening, there is a likelihood of the protagonist having a heterosexual relationship with his female sidekick.

Northern Demographic





Evaluation Question 1: In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

Conventions Used in Our Media Product

The majority of our conventions have been taken from Working Title productions as they have made more films in the action genre, whereas Warp Films produce more low budget films like horror and comedy.

  • Total ident length of 44 seconds - this is conventional because the average length of idents in a film opening is around 40 - 50 seconds.
  • 2 animated titles - the animation in the titles in the titles is conventional in action films and is often used with motion tracking, as is our titles.
  • Establishing, high angle, long shot - as seen in Mad Max and James Bond Casino Royale
  • Non-diegetic sound - the sound of the typewriter typing out the location is a common convention in action films such as James Bond and the Bourne Film Series.
  • Non-diegetic music - often used to build suspense in fast paced action sequences such as James Bond Casino Royale and Captain America Winter Soldier.
  • Fair haired attractive protagonist - also appears in the James Bond series and also in Captain America Winter Soldier.
  • Extreme close up - appears in the training scene for Arrow and also the opening scene of Mad Max.
  • Tracking shot - tracking shots are conventionally used in action films because it is much easier to follow fast paced action with handheld motion or dollys.
  • Over the shoulder shots - used in Mad Max, James Bond Casino Royale, Arrow and also Captain America Winter Soldier.
  • MacGuffin plot device - used in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Mission Impossible III. Our MacGuffin is the backpack and also the memory stick.
  • Fast paced editing, short clips and fast cutting - used conventionally in the action genre because the primary target audience is often young and fast editing keeps the attention of that young audience. Examples of fast paced editing would be in Arrow.
  • Extreme long panning shot - can be found in Mad Max, James Bond Casino Royale and Captain America Winter Soldier.
  • Two shot - not only found in action genres but in most other genres. Signifies to the audience that there will be a relationship between the two characters. Whether it be romantic, allies or their nemesis. Examples being in the James Bond Series and also in the rom-com About A Boy.
  • Female sidekick - Most popular female sidekick being 'M' from the James Bond Series.
  • Chase scene - it is a convention in action films as it can be seen in Mad Max and also Casino Royale. Casino Royale's chase scene is on foot and we took inspiration from it as it also features some forms of 'parkour'.
  • First person - Arrow season one.
  • Slow motion - used in the chase scene of Casino Royale.
  • High pitched non-diegetic music - creates suspense in action films (Mad Max) and we also took inspiration from the majority of horror films too.
  • Semiotics - the locations of the shots were conventional as they appeared to be in a working class run down area, for example, the Casino Royale building site can be compared to our run down area that we used. The costumes are conventional because it is often that the protagonist will wear lighter coloured clothing than the antagonist. However, this clothing can still be monochrome, as viewed significantly in the superhero-action film Captain America.

Disagreements to Conventions In Our Media Product

  • The use of only 2 titles - the average amount of titles in a film is 25, however in Warp Films productions this number is significantly lower. Therefore it can be argued that this is both a convention as we are essentially producing an indie media product and also unconventional in the way that it is against most Working Title productions.
  • Handheld cinematography - most action films will use a dolly when panning however as we have a low budget, we cannot afford a dolly and therefore handheld provides a more authentic panning shot.
  • Semiotics - the appearance of the antagonist is unconventional as he has long hair, whereas most action villains have short hair - bald. 
Film Openings Mentioned:






Tuesday, 22 March 2016

My Contribution

This is a blog post on what roles each person played in our group.

Director-

  • Robbie - Deputy director
  • Alex - Director
  • Tom - N/A
  • Me - N/A

Cinematography-

  • Robbie - Co cinematographer for the chase scene and main cinematographer for the gym scene.
  • Alex - Main cinematographer for the chase scene and co cinematographer for the gym scene.
  • Tom - N/A
  • Me - N/A

Editor-
  • Robbie - Co editor for the Gym Scene
  • Alex - Main Editor for whole production + input into the Gym scene
  • Tom - Co-editor for the Gym Scene
  • Me - N/A


Music- 

  • Robbie - N/A
  • Alex - Found music from other sources
  • Tom - Found music from other sources
  • Me - N/A

Actor-

  • Robbie - N/A
  • Alex - N/A
  • Tom - Protagonist
  • Me - Antagonist


Pre Production work-

  • Robbie - Location scouting
  • Alex - Shot list 
  • Tom - Story Board, Call sheet , Team manager
  • Me - Screen Play

My Specific Role

My main role was the actor, however it was me and Tom who came up with some of the foundations of the chase scene. I had some of the idea for the free running and Tom had the idea of the training scene. I was given the role of music as I have the most experience with music in the group. It was difficult to create music that fit the genre of our production as I have only ever created acoustic pieces before. I was sadly then unable to produce music due to inexperience of this genre. Finally, I thought it would be best if I wrote the screen play as it was a simple task, However we didn't use it.


Source- https://wattfilms.blogspot.co.uk

Monday, 14 March 2016

Alfred Hitchcock's MacGuffin

Definition
"In fiction, a MacGuffin is a plot device in the form of some goal, desired object, or other motivator that the protagonist pursues, often with little or no narrative explanation."

We took inspiration from director Alfred Hitchcock in having a MacGuffin in our film opening. The bag/memory stick is the main focus in the opening, however we intend to not have it included in the rest of the film. In doing this the audience can forget about it, only for it to be used in the climax of the film and link the story together.

Examples

  • George Lucas - R2-D2 was described as a MacGuffin. He is the "main driving force of the film"
  • J.J Abrams - In Mission Impossible III Abrams uses the rabbit foot as a MacGuffin, it was the object that Ethan needed to deliver to Davies
  • Steven Spielberg - The crystal skull is another example of a MacGuffin in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. However this was seen as an unsatisfying MacGuffin. Spielberg himself said "I sympathise with people who didn't like the MacGuffin because I never liked the MacGuffin".







Saturday, 5 March 2016

Feedback on Rough Cut 6

Source- https://wattfilms.blogspot.co.uk

If you were to give the film opening a rating out of ten what would it be?
Response 1- 8
Response 2- 7
Response 3- 9
Response 4- 8

Was the narrative clear during the film opening? If not why?
Response 1- Yes
Response 2- Yes 
Response 3- Yes 
Response 4- Yes 

Did you find the film opening engaging or did you find yourself bored?
Response 1- It was engaging, and fast paced, good for a film opening.
Response 2- I did, it worked well and I would watch the whole film.
Response 3- It was.
Response 4- Yes it was engaging.

Rate the cinematography out of ten?
Response 1- 7
Response 2- 8
Response 3- 8
Response 4- 7

Rate the editing out of ten?
Response 1- 9
Response 2- 9 
Response 3- 9
Response 4- 8

Rate the setting of ten in relation with the genre?
Response 1- 6
Response 2- 6
Response 3- 5
Response 4- 6

Rate the music of ten?
Response 1- 9
Response 2- 9
Response 3- 9
Response 4- 8

Did you feel there are any improvement that need to be made?
Response 1- Exposure varies.
Response 2- Maybe a better location?
Response 3- Colour correction needed
Response 4- Gym scene could have had dimmer lighting to feel more like a real gym scene.

Specifically which part of the film opening did you enjoy and why?
Response 1- The gym scene worked really well.
Response 2- Gym.
Response 3- Chase scene.
Response 4- Match cuts and how they linked with the gym scene, this made the narrative so much clearer.

Tuesday, 1 March 2016