Our media project is presented in a very professional manner, which has been worked on extensively to portray and emulate the sense of a real life film. We have used various tools and software to try to achieve this. My media product challenges the form, of real life thrillers as it highlights the storyline onscreen in a relatively unique way.
For example, instead of having a traditional element of surprise those ‘normal’ thrillers have, our one incorporates the viewpoint of more than one subject. Instead of simply following the protagonist alone, we show the movements, and track the location of the antagonist throughout the entire clip. I also concentrated on the scene transitioning and developed the effect that precise match cutting had on the film. It allowed the video to flow seamlessly, and got rid of the artificial feel that it originally had before we began editing.
As for aspects such as body language within the film, the protagonist is presented in a very professional manner with gives the film an immediate authentic atmosphere. We also had very good lighting in the film, even when there was very little natural light present. In real life Hollywood films, the colour used always seems to be of a high quality glow which often I the distinction between Hollywood films, and standard British ones.
2.) My media product represents its social group using ‘mise-en-scene’ as well as theme. It is set in urban London (Islington), and this made clear by the appearance of streets and buildings in the clip. The actors are also quite young and so it appeals to a younger social group / audience. Derek represents the average 21-year-old that has perhaps just gone into a full-time job. The car that he drives in the clip, a modern Volkswagen Golf model, is an ideal car for individuals around this age. The clothing he wears in the film is of a professional status, however, is worn in a relaxed way which can be considered as a ‘cooler’ way to wear a suit.
3.) An independent cinema studio would likely be the main distributer of our film. I believe this because of the low budget that our film had to start with. As it is not a ‘blockbuster’, we would need to have an affordable distributor in order for our product to be released. However, it is possible that a larger studio could put our film out there, as I am convinced that it would have a large audience turnout. It would also be ideally a very popular one, as we want it to be able to attract people and increase profits or funding.
4.) The target audience for my media product would generally be younger people, perhaps between the ages of 15 and 30. I have chosen these ages because although younger people outside of this age range tend to go to the cinema often, our thriller contains aspects of violence and so would not be suitable for minors. Also, it has an action element to it which is a genre often favoured by younger people as opposed to perhaps 45 year olds. There is no gender preference in my target audience; males and females are equally targeted. However, it is slightly aimed towards urban residents as we feel they will be easier to relate to because of the nature of our film. In addition, English-speaking people would be a more predominant audience. All social economic backgrounds are an audience for this thriller as there is no preference.
5.) In terms of attracting and addressing an audience, this will be done through the promotion process. Media outlets such as television commercials and billboard will be amongst the most valued promotion portals used. Although expensive, TV adverts promoting the film will be run at times of the day when we believe we will have a larger viewing audience, such as later of the day i.e. 8pm. I do not feel that it would make sense to run our adverts at very early times of the day, as most people will still be asleep.
On the other hand, billboards in popular areas such as gyms, libraries and outside clubs would likely attract more people than if they were located at less popular zones such as museums and galleries. We will also use larger banners on the sides of buses to promote and attract our audience, as public transport is the most popular mode of transport within our audience. We could also use other companies to promote our film such as ‘Coca Cola’ for instance. This could be in the form of our film being advertised on the sides of coke bottles, giving people the opportunity to win tickets to the screening of our film.
Finally, the internet can be used as an attraction method. Many younger people use the internet for various reasons; from shopping to instant messaging. We could use popular websites accessed by million of people daily, to get the idea of our film around very quickly.
6.) Concerning the technological aspect of media, I have learnt about just how big a part technology plays in the development as well as planning of film in the 21st century. The tools of production used to create filming utensils, materials and even editing processes have allowed films to consist of higher quality products with less effort than perhaps in the past. It also means that non-professionals can get together and create a realistic product without having experts around as guidance. We as students are obviously not fully skilled nor experienced in the filmmaking industry, but media programs such as ‘Final Cut Pro’ and ‘Soundtrack’ aided us in the production of our coursework. The interfaces of these programs were relatively straightforward, and we were able to construct our product after filming quiet easily. The editing process was based solely around technology as it allowed us to trim, cut and paste different recorded events in the order of our choice. For example, we may have filmed two different shots several weeks apart, but on screen, editing technology allows it to flow as one naturally shot without any time apart.
‘Livetype’ was a program that we also used in the making of our thriller. It was used to create the credits and title in the film. Nevertheless, it was also a program that I did not personally use often; perhaps once or twice. Therefore, I was not able to grasp the full hang of it as someone such as Eni had. This was a part o the editing that I did not really understand in terms of constructing a title and making it look professional.
As for blogging, technology such as the internet and web group forums allows us media users to share our experiences and diary accounts in an online database. We can also attach and compare our films with one another very easily.
Although I naturally prefer Windows systems as opposed to Apple Macs, I found the Apple Mac computers in college much easier to use than the ones I had used in the past. I thought I would have an issue with the sensitivity of the computers, but to my delight, they were fine. There were also some functions on Apple Macs that are impossible to utilise on Windows systems.
7.) In comparison to my preliminary task, the newspaper video, I have learnt a great deal about the importance of planning required to produce a full project of high quality. In the first project, we did not have so much time to plan, so our project was more or less a project that was made up of scenes that were recorded on the first take, apart from a few shots required for the match cutting. Organisation was also a major issue as specific roles were not directly appointed in the preliminary task, and it was more of an improvisation when allocating roles and tasks. However, in our thriller video task, we were generally more organized in terms of our progress schedule, role allocation and timing.
In terms of research, during our first project, we hadn’t watched many professional blockbusters that could aid us with our film in terms of camera techniques and the effects they produce. It was only in between that we actually started to properly analyse the various shots and camera angles in films such as Mission Impossible and Collateral. This allowed us to applied better camera work towards our thriller as we had something physical to compare with.
As for editing, I found editing in the preliminary task easier than in the thriller task, perhaps because the latter was a lot more complex than the initial one. However, this is not a complaint as I saw the thriller as a more challenging feat in which I could try and utilize the skills I had learnt in lessons. There were better angels and shots to manipulate in the final task, which was pleasing as it brought out the vast effects that different camera angles could have on a film. In the first task, there wasn’t much match cutting involved. It was more of the camera panning and scaling on the screen to pick up different actions from various angels.
Filming was also a lot more fun in comparison to the first task. Due to the fact that the first task did not really involve leaving the college premises, it seemed more ‘typical’ making a film in an environment that we are in everyday. However, when we were making our thriller, we were able to take trips to various locations and try different things out, to see what would best suit the intended atmosphere on-screen.
Finally, a key element I learnt was the importance of teamwork. Being able to communicate and agree on decisions with team members was a key reason as to why we were able to finish on time, and two a high quality, regardless of the fact that there was a brief rush in the closing hours of the deadline. Work delegation was slightly an issue as I felt that certain members were more hard-working than others, but as long s we managed to involved everyone in the project at some point, was what I felt was most important above all things.
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