AS Coursework Reflection

Digital Technology-

Creativity-

Research and Planning-

Post-production-

Using conventions from real media texts-

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

I think that i have learnt a lot from the preliminary up to our final film. We have gone from using only a few different shots, to using different lengths and a variety of high angle and low angle as well as getting good match on action parts. Also we have learnt how to use Adobe better, which has improved our editing. We have also got used to how the camera work and how long we need for all our footage to be uploaded, so this means our time management of how long and how much we need to film everytime. I have also learnt how to hold a steady shot and film in very cold weather conditions. I have also found that speech when filming is quite hard to pick up so we had to practise a few times with using the microphone and without. I have learnt a range of different shots to use and how to use them if they have a meaning, such as the angle shots, when it is looking up at someone they have more power, Close ups show important objects and long distance/establishing shots show location and setting. I have learnt how sound can play an important part at showing genre for example the music can change moods of the footage instantly.

Music does a lot to the film and also the speed of the shots makes the film more entertaining. We were also more creative in our shot choices and how we filmed it, for example jumping over the camera.

This is the videos of our Final Film and the Preliminary Task to show the difference in the films we produced.
















I think there is a difference in the quality of what we have filmed. We have improved alot since our preliminary task which we filmed afew months before, but we have done even better since our very first attempt at filming when Me and Simon spoke about football.

Here are some screen shots of our Preliminary Task:

I used this shot because, it was one of our basic shots. This is me walking down the corridor so shows location and character.

This shot we used to show the new location and my character meeting with a new one, it shows that the scene is mysterious because it looks as though someone is watching from the trees and shouldn't be doing so.



This shot is a good one to analyse, because we use this type of shot in our final film, we have two characters and them both at two different depths.

What have you learnt from technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Here is a list of what technologies I have used in the making of the product:

• Blogger.


• Adobe premiere elements.


• YouTube.


• Camera.


• Microphone.


• Tripod.


• FreePlayMusic.


• Free sound effects.


• Facebook.


• Slideshare.


• Paint.


• iPhone.
  
  

Blogger: We used blogger to put all of our research and our evaluation on. It helped us keep track of what we have done and what we still need to do, also it helped us get some audience feedback.

Adobe Premiere Elements: We used Adobe Premiere Elements to edit our final film together and we used it to make our titles.

YouTube: We used YouTube to get audience feedback from people who aren't necessarily doing media studies, so therefore getting a point of view from people that don't know about Media.

Camera: We used the camera to capture all the footage and we used it to make lots of different shots.

Microphone: We used this to make the sound louder and clearer for the audience to hear.

Tripod: We used the Tripod to keep our camera steady when we need it to and to be able to turn it steadily.

FreePlayMusic: We used FreePlayMusic, because this is where we got our two pieces of music from.

Free Sound Effects: We got our explosion for the train, which made the title more effective.

Facebook: We used Facebook to get some more audience feedback for our final film.

Slideshare: We used slideshare to put a slide show on to our blogs.

Paint: We used it to save our screengrabs on.

iPhone: We used an iPhone as a prop in our film and i also used it to get the screengrabs from our film.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Our video for our voice over also has annotations to show the how did you attract/address your audience?

Who would be the audience for your media product?

This is Chris, he is 17 years old. I have chose to look at him for our audience member because, he is the ideal age we are aiming our film at. His favourite genre of film is action and watches them regularly, this means he is even more likely to watch our film. He says he is influenced by reviews on action films by professionals and says he would generally watch it, if he heard it was good.

He watches teenage to young adult programmes such as 90210 and gneral comedy programmes because he can relate to them because he is about that age.

He listens to modern music, which is used in action films.

He is going to watch our film because he enjoys action films, which uses modern music and he doesn't like getting bored of films and because our opening goes straight into the action he will probably get into it from the start.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I have chosen to look at my character from the opening sequence, as he is the main character and is very important to the film. He is also quite similar to other main characters in real action films. He is a normal adult male, but he works for a secret service. He has afew similarities and afew differences to other characters.

We had problems with making my costume look realistic for working for a secret service. This was because we are playing adults and we are only teenagers so we look like teenagers. I have chosen to look at afew other characters from real media products to show the similarities and differences we have used in the opening sequence for what our character is like.

I have chosen to look at James Bond.

I have chosen to look at James Bond, as he is the main character of one the biggest action film franchise and everyone knows about him. He always dresses smartly, so we took ideas from his costume and used them in our opening. Also we both wear dark and dull colours, such as grey, black or brown, this is because these colours are the most professional. However my character is wearing a black jacket and he wears a very formal suit which shows that he is important and likes to dress well.

Also James Bond works for a secret service, we have made our main character work for a secret service also. We have done this because it means he is able to do more than what a normal policeman can do, also because of the James Bond films the secret service has become famous to have a good guy working for them working against the enemy. Both our main character and James Bond are directed who to find by their boss, but both can do pretty much what they like to an extent.

I also looked at Mark Wahlberg when he was in shooter as Bob Lee Swagger.

His costume is different to the main character of our film because at the start he is retired from his job and stays at home with his dog, so therefore doesn't have to wear smart clothes and when he went to the shooting he wears smart clothes but its not a suit its smart jeans and a smart shirt. He may think that he doesn't need to wear smart clothes because he doesn't have a boss to impress and doesn't work for any sort of organisation.

He doesn't have a job because he retired from being a sniper which is a difference to Lewis' character as he is still working for a secret service, another difference between them is that Mark Wahlberg's character is specialist at sniping where as Lewis' character is an all rounder. I chose to look at him in this film because there is a lot of explosions in it, and that is a similarity to our film.

Overall I think my character is of a typical action film and I think that he has a mixture between the two characters i have done research on.

Evaluation Screen Shots

This image is of the screenshots I have chosen to analyse to show my links to other film openings.

1. Shot 1-Most Action films use the black screen with titles on it effect because they are simple and is very good to start a film. It also is used so the audience doesn't get distracted by them coming up, and will know what is happening after they are finished. We named our film reconnaissance because it means an exploratory military survey conducted to gain, or collect information. This fits into the genre of our film and what happens in it, because Lewis (good guy) trys to get some information from Simon (bad guy), also because it's an army word it means that it's a word to do with action, which is our genre. Also we have added an explosion noise over the top of the word on the black screen which adds effect and also backs up the idea that the word fits in with the army.

1. Shot 2-We have set our action film, running through the woods. This fits in because the leaves and bushes add to the intensity of the chase alongside the music. We also used this location because it was easy to get to and was accessable most of the time. Most Action films are set in dark and mysterious places, sometimes even in big cities. We wanted our chase scene to be more intense so we did it in the middle of the woods as it gave us more room to run and it was more realistic as the setting was natural.

1. Shot 3-The costumes we used represent the different characters, Lewis is wearing smart black trousers and a black jacket with black shoes, this shows that he is professionally dressed, whereas Simon is wearing a black jacket, dark blue jeans and trainers which shows that he is a lot more casual and that he might not be working for anyone and is not very professional, because of this you can see the contrast between the two characters which clearly shows the audience who is who. Amy the wife is wearing casual clothes like in other action films the female role dresses normally. The prop we have in our opening sequence is the phone, which is important as it is used to show the story more and also help the audience know which character is bad.

1. Shot 4-I have used this image to show camera work and editing because we have shown match on action well, Both the characters in the chase jump over something in the path and the camera quickly changes so we can see them landing on the otherside, this was a good shot to use because it gets the audience right in the middle of the action. We have also made are shots quick to create speed, like in other action opening sequences. Chase scenes in action films use lots of different shots to show the characters nearly catching up with each other and then losing each other again.

1. Shot 5-We have used this screen shot to show fonts and style of the titles because it shows clearly are bold font, Other action films use bold titles and font styles because it links well to the genre, as the shots are quick the titles need to be bold and readable and more simple so the audience can follow the story easily instead of struggling to read them and keep up with the story.

1. Shot 6-I have used this screen shot because the opening sequence is about the train blowing up. To set up the story in the opening sequence we showed who the characters are, what was happening and what was going to happen, Our opening sequence is left on a cliff hanger after Lewis is chasing Simon, He then loses him and recieves a phone call from a blocked number, It is the bad guy Simon, telling him that his wife is going to die. Lewis then tries to do something about what is going to happen and then recieves a text from the same blocked number and it reads, and yes i know she is on the train. Lewis then panics and the train that his wife is on blows up, it finishes there which sets the story up for the whole film.

1. Shot 7-I chose this shot to show the genre and how the opening shows it because while this shot is happening there is fast, intense music playing in the background which creates an action feeling. We have also used chasing, explosions and good and bad characters which are used in typical action films.

1. Shot 8- I chose this shot to show how the characters are introduced because it shows both the main characters in the film. But it is different to other action films because we didn't properly introduce our main characters, which adds to the mystery. The way we introduced our characters was by seeing them run past the screen several times which shows they are chasing and shows the audience that these two are the films main characters. The audience also do not find out much about them as they will later on the film.

1. Shot 9- This shot is too show the special effects we used, we found this clip of a train that had exploded, and the setting of where the train exploded is similar to ours so it fits in. We used this in our film because it fits in with our genre and helps to develop our story and it also fits in to our storyline, so was needed to make the audience understand what is going on. The explosion also works well because it fits in to the typical action components that usually appear in films. We have also used transitions and fading in and out titles to make our opening sequence more like a real action film.

Final Film :)

This is a video of our final film.

This is the URL for our video on YouTube just incase.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcFH0rGA_JI

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)

My media product uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products such as film opening. The different forms of media are whats in it, such as titles shots used and special effects, mise-en-scene and the music/ sound effects.

My opening sequence uses titles, on a black screen with white font, they contrast each other and stand out more, even though they are simple, which makes it more like typical action films as some use very simple but bold effective titles, it is quite different to other action film titles as well because some use animated titles.

We have set our film in the woods because it adds to the tension and the audience automatically feel out of their comfort zone, also the woods make it seem more realistic, which also makes our film more realistic. James Bond Casino Royale also has a chase scene at the start of their film and it includes them running through a bit of a forest before they get to the main chase in the building site. In films, audiences recognise forests with mysterious and dangerous places, therefore this makes the setting very appropriate for our scene and meets our action genre.

We had difficulties with our costumes that our actors were wearing, this is because we thought that we didn't do a very good job at making our actors look old enough instead of teenagers running in the woods, we managed to overcome this by adding a wife to the main character and him being dressed a lot more professionally. We also used some props in our opening scene including a phone, this was to add more depth and more of a storyline to our opening 2 minutes. We used the costume of Jason Bourne in the Bourne trilogy as our inspiration because he was always smartly dressed during the film, which made the look to the film a lot more professional.

We used quick editing and shots because that's what happens in virtually all action films that have chase scenes in them, this is because it means that the audience doesn't know what is happening next and will want to watch more, all chase scenes in action films include quick editing and quick shots to add to the tension of their films and also music may start to fill in for the lack of digetic sound or just to add to the tension. We also had a match on action in the middle when each character jumped over the camera to the other side, this took a lot of thought and patience to get right.

We used a very simple and easy title font and style, this is because the audience need to be able to read the font quickly as we cut between the titles and the action very quickly therefore if the font was difficult to read they might not be able to see it time before it cuts to the next bit of action. In other films they usually have some titles over the top of some of the action, which we thought wouldn't work well with ours because people would want to just want to watch the action so therefore wouldn't be able to see our titles. However James Bond is an exception to the action film genre because they have a complete animated title sequence before the main action starts, they probably are able to do this because they are a massive franchise and therefore people enjoy watching it and won't get bored as it's world famous.

The story is set up by the opening because the main characters wife dies and from that point on you can see that he will want revenge on the man responsible for the explosion. So therefore the storyline has a more personal feel between the two men instead of it just being business which will encourage people to carry on. James Bond also wants to get revenge on the killer of the one he loves, which happened in Casino Royale and carried on into Quantum of Solace this also made him more violent and had less tolerance than he would be.

The genre we chose was action, we can see it's an action film because the chase scene through the forest. This shows it's action because of the costumes we were both wearing, one was wearing smart and professional clothes and the other is wearing casual clothes and also it makes you wonder what happened just before the scene and how the chase started. Also after the chase stops and they have their conversation he says his wife is going to die so you therefore know that they are enemies to each other and usually that leads to one of them dying which also ties into the action genre. Also it's easy to see that James Bond and the Bourne films are action films because they both have one enemy that is introduced from the start and try to set out to find them throughout the film.

Our characters aren't really introduced very well, but it was purpose full and adds to the mystery that's there naturally due to the running through the forest and what the music adds. But we do introduce them enough to know which ones the bad guy and which one is the good guy. This is good because it sets up the rest of the film, because they are both still alive and the audience knows that one at the end will die. James Bond films don't really need to introduce the main character because everyone knows who he is, but the bad guy is introduce every time because it's someone new every time. The Bourne films however, introduced Jason Bourne in the first one, they managed this with flashbacks of his past and what has led him to this point in his life.

The special effects we used was the train explosion at the end, we got the short video from YouTube. We got this because it adds to the effect of our film and makes the audience sad for the main character and makes them dislike the main enemy straight away, we used this technique to get the audience on the side of the good guy which therefore will get them more involved in the film and when the bad guy dies they will feel happiness and glad that he has died. All action films that we have looked at have either an explosion or a fight scene to get the audience involved.

Final Filming and editing

We have finally finished filming our opening two minutes and are now editing the last few details. Over the last few days the weather cleared up enough for us to do some more filming, so we took the opportunity to try and get it all finished before more bad weather arrives. We had to cut a conversation that we planned to have at the end of the two minutes, after we see the train ruins but because had already hit the two minute mark we were unable to otherwise it would drag on too much and we think that it would be unnecessary.
We editing process of our particular film is difficult because all of our shots need to be quick to tie in to our genre of film (Action), so we have to be very precise in which bits we need to cut.

Changes we had to make:
We had to make some changes due to time limits and our script not working as we planned quite afew times. We have had to change the script several times now but we have finally made one that will show the story and show the audience what is happening.

Script:
(Lewis phone starts to ring, we look at the phone and it is a blocked number)
Simon: Your wife's gonna die! (Fuzzy voice)
Lewis: Your not gonna get away with this.
Simon: ...Watch Me...
(Hangs up).

This is much simpler but is still very effective and gets straight to the point.

Shots during script

Simon's first line- OTS of Lewis looking for Simon.
Lewis Line- Point of view Simon.
Simon- Looking at Lewis looking around, then skip to facial expression.
Lewis- Looking at Simon in bush from behind.
Simon- Close up of Simon, facial expression.
Lewis- Close up facial expression.
Simon- Point of view Simon again, Lewis close up getting angry.
Lewis- Distant shot of Lewis.
Simon- see Simon start walking (see the twig snap). See Lewis turn around amd shoot.
Shot of Simo0n fall and then see Lewis start running.

The newest and final script idea and Other changes we have made

Script

Simon: Your supposed to be finding me, not losing me.
Lewis: I will get you eventually, you might as well come out mow.
Simon: What so you can shoot me, you don't want that i have information.
Lewis: I know, that's why i'm here.
Simon: No you don't, it's about you wife.
Lewis:...my wife...
Simon: On a train to London? what would you say if it, i dunno, blew up.
Lewis: (looks angry) You can't hide forever.
Simon: You better go find her. (twig snaps)
(Simon gets shot) see him fall and Lewis start to run.
(TRAIN SCENE.)


Actors/Characters Pictures

Lewis-Good Guy

Simon- Bad Guy

Amy- The Wife

Props

More research

This is the trailer for the Dark Knight, which is another action film that we have taken inspiration from.

It has a good explosion scene and has helped us to try and get something similar and helped us make our film more mysterious than we were going to anyway.

Also there are lots of chases and fight scenes, which we have also include in our opening two minutes.

Dark Knight was a very big film one of the biggest of the year of release, so if we use similar things to them then, our film would also be big and so many people people watched it, so setting similar to it means that people that watched that will watch ours.

Research of more films

This is Die Hard, I think that this would be a good film for me to do research on because it's quite similar to our film with fast music, terrorists and gun firing for example.

In our film we see one good guy trying to save many lives from a terror attack, and it's very similar to this.

The main difference between this film and our film is that ours is a chase scene and Die hard is set in a building. Also the main character (Bruce Willis) is working for the police and our main character is working for Mi6.

Our Film has very strong links to Die Hard, so it will help us on our film and gives ideas in what is effective and what isn't.

Costume, Actors and Practice Filming

Weather this weekend

This Saturday this is what the weather forecast is, so it will be good conditions for us to film. There is however a likely hood of heavy snow on the Friday (according to BBC weather) so we ill have to see if it is suitable enough for filming.

If the snow is bad we will either have to postpone our filming or we will have to clear the paths

Opening 2 minutes (treatment)

We have decided to change our opening two minutes because we think our opening relies too much on the chasing and we also thought that there wasn't enough dialogue in our old idea so we have more added a longer conversation.
We now have the chase scene at the start, but we have shortened it considerably from about 90 seconds to 30-40. This means we don't have to rely on the chase scene being good and if the scene isn't good then it would be difficult to see which genre it is. We also think that if the chase goes on for too long then it may become boring for the audience and they may lose interest in the film.
After the chase scene the two have a conversation about a train that is planned to be blown up by the new terrorism group that has been set up recently and tells Lewis that his wife is on the certain train which is due to blow up in 9 minutes according to the terrorist. He shoots him and then you see him running towards the train tracks, and a train goes past, then Lewis falls to his knees as the train goes into the distance.
It then cuts to Amy (who is playing Lewis' wife) is on the train listening to her ipod, then we have slow, consoling sort of music with the ticking starting quite slow and quiet and then speeds up to a long beep. and goes black.
We then put a video of a real train that was on fire and show it as a news report, with a narration over the top explaining what has happened which gives the audience an overview of what they have seen all summarised very quickly and easily for everyone to understand.
But at the moment we are unsure weather we are allowed to use a video that we have found on YouTube even if we only use it for 10 seconds, so we have asked and are waiting to find out before we doing any filming and if we aren't allowed we will have to make changes accordingly

New script idea

Simon: Well done, you got me.
Lewis: Pfffft.
Simon: How's the wife?
(Circling each other whilst speaking)
Simon: I believe she is on a train to London
Simon: Am I right?
(Lewis raises gun to Simon)
Simon: What would you say if it, i dunno blew up?
Simon: 9 minutes and counting
Simon: Time is ticking (Ticking Starts) Say goodbye
Lewis: Goodbye
(Shoots Simon and starts to run.)

Changes to Our Idea and Development

We have decided to change our idea because, it gives a clearer idea to the audience what the storyline is and the genre that the film falls in to.

What we have changed:

• We have changed the ending of our opening sequence to show the story more. Instead of Simon getting shot and that's the end, we decided to add something else to the ending as we had more time. At the ending we are getting a video of a train blowing up (Not making it easier for ourselves and not us blowing the train up).
• We may also need an added character.
• We also do not have certain props, the bag and piece of paper.

Order of story after changes:

• Lewis and Simon are chasing each other through the woods, this time we have cut this shorter so we have more time for story.
• They reach the end of the woods by the lake, Lewis and Simon Conversation, Simon tells Lewis that his wife is on a train that is about to blow up. Lewis gets angry and shoots Simon. Titles appear during the chase scene shots.
• We then see Amy (Wife) on a train, hear ticking noises. See ring on her finger.
• We then see a shot of a train blowing up.
• Then the title Reconnaissance
• If we have time left we then see Lewis walking up to a newspaper, picking it up, looking at the front page then throwing it on the floor.

Questionnaire Results

After we got the results from our questionnaire, we found that more males than females are likely to watch our film, (it was around 75% of males and 25% of females). We then should have things in the opening two minutes that appeal more to males than to females. We also found that the best age group for our film to be aimed at is 12, we therefore cut the swearing that we would of had if it was either a 15 or a 18.

Shot 13-25

Shot 13

Shot 14

Shot 15

Shot 16

Shot 17

Shot 18

Shot 19

Shot 20

Shot 21

Shot 22

Shot 23

Shot 24

Shot 25