In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
When first planning our film we needed ideas to get the thoughts flowing. We did this through YouTube to explore many different genres, openings and themes explored. After much deliberation we established our theme would be a dark, thriller and with this confirmed we could really focus on the type of films that fulfilled our thoughts. For me, the best film that represented what I was looking for was “Sin City” as this gave the dark edge that I was looking for. From watching “Sin City” we could see how effective using black and white and how it added to the misse-en-scene throughout the film. Although this seems like a basic thing to do, in our finished product I think it works extremely well.
Although we couldn’t get the definition that the top film producers got, our film defiantly looked better in black and white.
Doing the textual analysis gave us the insight we needed to see what kind of misse-en-scene, sound, editing and cinematography they used. Another film that played an influential role in the planning of the film was “Rock n Rolla”. Again this film had the dark, black and white, comic book look that we were going for (see below). Due to the fact that Guy Richie directed this film it also had British themes running through it which was one of our plans, trying to make the film as regional as possible.
Watching these two films in particular showed the importance of quick cuts at crucial times. Although we did not use quick cuts (due to the fact that is would not have fit), if we had carried on with the film there would have been.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
One of main aims was to show the difference between the working class (Jason Cole) and higher class (Simon Gray). These social groups are easily identifiable as Jason Cole is wearing a hoody and frayed jeans showing that he may not have a lot of money. This adds to the misse-en scene. Although you do not see Simon Gray (apart from his arm) his house and interior prove that he has a lot of money showing that he is of a higher class to Jason Jones. The film also addresses the constant uphill struggle that the working class face and this is reflected by low camera angles showing inferiority.
Having this contrasting social group’s means that it appeals to the masses rather than one social class. It also appeals to teenagers, for example the MP3 that Jason Jones is using. One of the main themes during the film is London gangs. You can see this when Jason Cole speaks, with the cockney accent. Another way in which we portrayed the London theme was in the music at the start which comes from a group called Rhyme Asylum who we contacted and who are from London. The hip-hop music will also appeal to the young audience. This makes our film more regional and with that, should attract more of a universal audience as films such as “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” have done well in countries such as the US.
What kind of media institution might describe your media production and why?
After looking at film institutions such as Working Title and Warner the best film institution would be Dimension films. This is because there film portfolio is full of dark/comic. This is exactly what we were looking for and people know what they get with Dimension films so therefore the audience will be more of the target same which we were aiming for.
Another option would be to use a smaller production company that is more specific to our regional themes in the film. For example Big Arty productions which did films such as This Is England.
With a collaboration of the two this would be perfect and highlight all the key areas we are looking to put in our film.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The film would have an audience of 15+ predominantly males, due to the strong violence, illegal themes and multifaceted story line. The reason for this is because the story line shows a working class kid trying to make it through revenge and stealing, which one may say appeals to males rather than females.
The music throughout the film also reflects today’s young culture in the fact it’s loud with a heavy beat. This will appeal to the younger generation.
There are however some factors of the film that will appeal to women such as the family troubles that Jason Cole has to get over, and the dream of a perfect life with a wife and kids which Cole constantly strives for.
How did you attract your audience?
At first we didn’t know how to approach the start of the film and whether we were going to go in with a bang or have a slightly mysterious opening. We needed a way of gauging people’s tastes. Hence why we did a questionnaires. We gave this to people around school to see what their tastes were and based our film around that. From the questionnaires a compromise between ‘in with a bang’ and ‘mysterious’ was formed and ended up with a tense yet still unknowing opening to the film.
We also hung up posters that we made all around school, so therefore our film would stand out amongst the others. With the poster (below) I think it conveys the perfect message about the film. You can see the pain in Jason Coles face and it hardly gives away anything about the film but still makes you wonder why he’s so unhappy. I personally think that this would attract audiences as I feel that they would want to see what happens to him.
When storyboarding our film, the big debate of dialogue came up. We felt in the opening 2 minuets as little dialogue would be best as it is a mysterious beginning and with too much dialogue it could make it look amateur.
What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Throughout the project technology played a huge part. From making the poster on Photoshop to filming the film. We did all our film producing on Mac’s, which at first caused some problems as they are not as widely used as Windows, but now on hindsight Mac’s work far more efficiently than Windows and it was a lot easier producing the films on Mac’s. At first it was hard to grasp some of the concepts such as Final Cut and Live Type but after a while we learnt more and more about it (thanks to constant teaching) and ended up being very adept at using these facilities.
We did have some major problems on the way such as loosing our entire extra’s feature and some parts not saving. Although very annoyed at the time it is a learning curve in organisation, in that we should have made files for each aspect of the film and if I were to do it again, that’s exactly what I would do.
We also use Cubase to do the directors cut. I had never used Cubase before and it was a lot more difficult than I had anticipated, and still haven’t got a full grasp of it.
When using the Final Cut, we used the different plug-ins to great affect especially the black and white and distorted plug-ins. This added another dimension to the film and I personally thing without these plug-ins that the film would have lacked that extra spark that they gave.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Watching the preliminary task then the full product, there is a massive improvement. From the flow of cuts to the sound there is a vast improvement. With the preliminary task it was more of a learning activity where as with the film, it was something that you really wanted to make look good so therefore put all effort and the skills you learnt into it.
Here you can really see the difference of the two. I feel it is mainly in the flow of the project.
