When my group began with the prelim we realised how difficult filming is actually going to be. There was so much to consider especially match on action, 180degree rule and most importantly continuality. When my groups prelim was finished we realised that we did not give all out attention to continuality so it was easy to spot the mistakes. In our main task on the other hand we concentrated so much on continuality and it was all correct and no mistakes there. From our prelim I learnt how hard it actually is to edit and film and how much time it takes up for just minutes worth of footage. We thought our prelim took long to edit but then the main task was even longer everything had to be perfect in our eyes so a lot of time was spent on the editing and filming. As a group we all realised how much we would have to be patient with filming as a lot of misshapes happened in our prelim so we knew a lot more was coming in our main task.
From audience feedback as a group we could see that our main task was a lot better than our prelim. From our feedback of 16 questionnaires I can see that seven people said that the camera shots, angles and our editing was much improved in our main task. Six feedback forms said that the storyline was much better in our main task and that our main task was much more meaningful. One feedback form said that continuality was a major improvement in our main task. The other questionnaires were not filled in on this question we asked them. Me myself I think that my groups main task was much better than our prelim as we tried different shots and angles in our main task we thought hard about our shots and angles so that they were completely different than our prelim and shots that other groups may not have used like a dolly shot.
In my main task I would have liked to improve the plot if I had time I think that we put to many different scenes into two minutes of our film. I could see that this would have been confusing to the audience once I had finished editing so there was no time to go back and change anything. Also I would have improved the editing and made it run more smoothly than it did. From our audience feedback the question we asked was ‘what would you improve in our coursework?’. the feedback that we received was that editing was the main thing that the audience would change so that the product would run better. Also the feedback showed us that the audience would improve the plot in the product. As I said before that I knew it would be quite confusing to follow for the audience as unlike us they did not no the whole story that we as a group was trying to show. The other thing mentioned by the audience to improve was the sound quality. As we were filing outside on a winters night it was hard to get the sound levels where we wanted of the camera as they picked up sound so easily. The wind was very high that day which made it so hard to get sound levels to a high quality. If improving my piece I would try and pick a night that the wind was not so bad or find a location that the wind was blocked by maybe buildings so it would not interfere with the camera.
Sunday, 21 February 2010
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Before I started media studies I had never had the chance to use the equipment that media were offering. Beginning with my groups prelim as a group we was able to use the handheld cameras and the tripods that media had. Some of us had used handheld cameras before ones that we had at home but definitely not the tripods. Our prelim gave us the chance to experience first hand how hard the camera was to actually use, especially the difficulties in the correct shots and angles. Once we had filmed all pieces of our prelim it was time to edit and here we was able to use the software iMovie which was new to the whole group. The iMacs were also new to us and were actually quite fun to use. We had to edit our prelim as good as we possibly could to make a final piece.
On to our main task again we used the handheld cameras and the tripods then once filmed again moved onto the iMacs to use the software iMovie. The iMacs were high quality and were easy to use. Once starting to edit we realised that there were editing techniques that we wanted to use that we couldn’t as it was not on the iMovie software. So as a group we used the old iMovie software which made it possible to slow time parts of our film which was at the end of our media product with the cigar. This was quite hard to understand on this software and was rather hard to use we all much preferred the new iMovie software as the layout was simple and easy to use. The voice over in which my group used was not done on the iMacs as the sound around would be picked up easily instead we went to the music studio instead where no music at all would affect out voice over.
The benefits of the technology that we used meant that the cameras made it easy to catch our film and we had enough time on there so that all our media clips that had gone wrong. The tripods made it easy to film steady shots, if we were holding the cameras then the footage would have been unfocused and shaky. This gave our media product that sense of professional feeling. The cameras picked up sound really good and we was able to stand away from the cameras at a quite far distance and the sound was picked up. The advantage of using the iMovie software made it so much easier to edit as we could cut and move the footage as much as we wanted to. The software was very easy and friendly to use which made it more enjoyable to edit our piece.
On the other hand there was limitations to the technology that we as a group used. The biggest limitation I believe was that when using the cameras and filming we made a lot of mistakes when filming and had to shoot a lot more than expected. This meant that we was using the camera a lot and the limitation was that the battery went extremely quick which was bad for us as if we wanted to film a lot in one day it was not possible. The battery roughly lasted an hour and this meant that we would have to do much more filming on different days. The tripod meant that we could only take shots that were left, right, up and down but the camera did turn but it was tough to keep the camera steady when doing this. The iMacs also had a limitation because if the computer would have crashed then all our work would have been lost and we would have to start editing all over again. As I said before that the cameras picked up sound quite easily this was also a limitation because we filmed outside the wind was picked up so easily and it effected our product as the speech was hard to hear.
If filming my media product again I would say better technology like higher tripods which would make it easier to get better high shots and low shots in the film. Also in our film because we were filming outside in the dark the cameras were poor quality so if filming again technology like lighting would really benefit. As this would made the quality a lot more better and able to see. Also new technology like a camera trolley which would mean smoother camera moving shots so the tracks would make it easier and smoother. Even though we used a dolly shot by making our own equipment it would have been much more effective with tracks.
On to our main task again we used the handheld cameras and the tripods then once filmed again moved onto the iMacs to use the software iMovie. The iMacs were high quality and were easy to use. Once starting to edit we realised that there were editing techniques that we wanted to use that we couldn’t as it was not on the iMovie software. So as a group we used the old iMovie software which made it possible to slow time parts of our film which was at the end of our media product with the cigar. This was quite hard to understand on this software and was rather hard to use we all much preferred the new iMovie software as the layout was simple and easy to use. The voice over in which my group used was not done on the iMacs as the sound around would be picked up easily instead we went to the music studio instead where no music at all would affect out voice over.
The benefits of the technology that we used meant that the cameras made it easy to catch our film and we had enough time on there so that all our media clips that had gone wrong. The tripods made it easy to film steady shots, if we were holding the cameras then the footage would have been unfocused and shaky. This gave our media product that sense of professional feeling. The cameras picked up sound really good and we was able to stand away from the cameras at a quite far distance and the sound was picked up. The advantage of using the iMovie software made it so much easier to edit as we could cut and move the footage as much as we wanted to. The software was very easy and friendly to use which made it more enjoyable to edit our piece.
On the other hand there was limitations to the technology that we as a group used. The biggest limitation I believe was that when using the cameras and filming we made a lot of mistakes when filming and had to shoot a lot more than expected. This meant that we was using the camera a lot and the limitation was that the battery went extremely quick which was bad for us as if we wanted to film a lot in one day it was not possible. The battery roughly lasted an hour and this meant that we would have to do much more filming on different days. The tripod meant that we could only take shots that were left, right, up and down but the camera did turn but it was tough to keep the camera steady when doing this. The iMacs also had a limitation because if the computer would have crashed then all our work would have been lost and we would have to start editing all over again. As I said before that the cameras picked up sound quite easily this was also a limitation because we filmed outside the wind was picked up so easily and it effected our product as the speech was hard to hear.
If filming my media product again I would say better technology like higher tripods which would make it easier to get better high shots and low shots in the film. Also in our film because we were filming outside in the dark the cameras were poor quality so if filming again technology like lighting would really benefit. As this would made the quality a lot more better and able to see. Also new technology like a camera trolley which would mean smoother camera moving shots so the tracks would make it easier and smoother. Even though we used a dolly shot by making our own equipment it would have been much more effective with tracks.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
To be able to attract our audience we had to make sure that all the themes in which were in British Gangster had to be in my film. We also had to include aspects of footage that would make our film a 18+. This included in our film the scenes of the crime and murder that took place in our piece. The use of our props like guns also attracted the audience because the props we used are in the same films as our genre. This would address the audience using props because this would show the audience that there will be crime involved. Which is a main theme in a British Gangster movie . Another way in which we attracted the audience was because of our twisted storyline which is different to other British Gangster films. The research that we done as a group to attract our audience was looking at films and seeing what critics had said about the film. The way in which people said things were good and bad about them helped us a group choose right ideas to go in our piece.
We showed our media product to the rest of our AS media class and had a screening to show them the film. The feedback was very helpful and we was able to see what was good and what could have been better with our film. Also we was able to see if our film was successful as we asked ‘would you watch the whole film?’ high majority of the people we asked said yes they would. This shows us that our media piece was highly successful with our target audience. Even though our class mates were not our target audience there votes were highly achievable as their age is close to 18 and I know that people my age are very highly interested in British Gangster films. We had to show 17year olds our piece instead of 18+ as it was quite hard to get older people as we no more people around our age.
Our piece I believe was successful at reaching our target audience as both men and women were interested in watching the rest of our piece as the questionnaire tells us and the high response to the questionnaire was that they wanted to watch more. This shows our piece was successful as it has reached our target audience and made them interested to watch much more. Our piece was also successful as we showed our prelim before our main task. On the questionnaire it asked if our main task was better than our prelim, the response to this was yes from everyone in which we asked.
We showed our media product to the rest of our AS media class and had a screening to show them the film. The feedback was very helpful and we was able to see what was good and what could have been better with our film. Also we was able to see if our film was successful as we asked ‘would you watch the whole film?’ high majority of the people we asked said yes they would. This shows us that our media piece was highly successful with our target audience. Even though our class mates were not our target audience there votes were highly achievable as their age is close to 18 and I know that people my age are very highly interested in British Gangster films. We had to show 17year olds our piece instead of 18+ as it was quite hard to get older people as we no more people around our age.
Our piece I believe was successful at reaching our target audience as both men and women were interested in watching the rest of our piece as the questionnaire tells us and the high response to the questionnaire was that they wanted to watch more. This shows our piece was successful as it has reached our target audience and made them interested to watch much more. Our piece was also successful as we showed our prelim before our main task. On the questionnaire it asked if our main task was better than our prelim, the response to this was yes from everyone in which we asked.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
For my groups media product we decided that the target audience would be the gender of men as the actual film is a British Gangster. When researching the target audience for other films we came across that the films were aimed at men. This is when my group decided that having a women as a main gangster would give us more target audience as women could be more interested. This gave our film a wider selection of target audience. The age range we was looking to aim our film at was 18+ as our film is filled with violence, crime and bad language. If the film would have carried on there also would have been scenes of sexual activity and nudity. When researching British Gangster films the majority of the films were 18+ is not then a 15+. This is because of the same themes that we have in our piece is the same as themes in other British Gangster films.
From audience feedback on the questionnaire the question asked ‘what genre do you think our coursework is in?’. The feedback we received was that our audience thought that our product fell into was British Gangster. Also Action was some peoples answer along with British Gangster. I can see why our audience would think the piece was action because of the bank scene which we showed in our media product. Also in a questionnaire we asked ‘Would you want to watch the rest of our film?’ the answer to this question varied only three people we asked said that they would not want to. This was one male and two women this shows that we got our target audience correct as men and women are interested in our media product.
From audience feedback on the questionnaire the question asked ‘what genre do you think our coursework is in?’. The feedback we received was that our audience thought that our product fell into was British Gangster. Also Action was some peoples answer along with British Gangster. I can see why our audience would think the piece was action because of the bank scene which we showed in our media product. Also in a questionnaire we asked ‘Would you want to watch the rest of our film?’ the answer to this question varied only three people we asked said that they would not want to. This was one male and two women this shows that we got our target audience correct as men and women are interested in our media product.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Types of distributor companies that have distributes British Gangster films include Universal Pictures which was one of the companies in which helped distribute ‘lock, stock and two smoking barrels’. Also companies like Film4 that helped distribute ‘sexy beast’. Distributor companies choose a film if it has a unique selling point that would attach fans quickly and the film should have a plot in which a wide audience would be interested in. There are two types of distributor companies these are major distribution companies that include ‘warner brothers, MGM, 20th century foxx’ These companies ditribute high well known international films and deal with multi million budget films. The second distributor company is an independent distributor company and this included companies like ‘Film4, Park circus and Pathe’. These companies operate in mainly one country and deal with a lower budget.
Many British Gangster films are distributed by independent distributor companies so this is what I would like my film to be distributed by. This is because my film is British and would not have a lot of money to make the film international. The distributor company that I would like would be a small company like ‘Pathe’ as they helped distribute ‘The Business’ which is a very popular British film. I believe that this company would be interested in our film as we have twists and a complicated plot and a unique selling point of a women high gangster which makes our film different to others. Also this company as our film is not a huge blockbuster but instead a low budget film.
Many British Gangster films are distributed by independent distributor companies so this is what I would like my film to be distributed by. This is because my film is British and would not have a lot of money to make the film international. The distributor company that I would like would be a small company like ‘Pathe’ as they helped distribute ‘The Business’ which is a very popular British film. I believe that this company would be interested in our film as we have twists and a complicated plot and a unique selling point of a women high gangster which makes our film different to others. Also this company as our film is not a huge blockbuster but instead a low budget film.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Starting our media product we had to think of how social groups are being represented in our piece and also why they are being represented in the way they are. First of all we have Joe and Mackenzie who are dressed in just normal plain clothes. Gangsters are usually stereotyped as men that are always wearing suits in gangster films. We contrasted this in our media product as our two main men gangsters were just dressed in normal clothes so the mise-en-scene would be different to other films. The use of using the normal clothing makes the reader think where they fall in the social hierarchy. The question of how important the two actually are is questioned by the audience. The social group of gangsters in represented in a different way by mise-en-scene in our piece. But on the other hand the social group of gangsters are coming across in a rude, violent way. The stereotypical way we have put the gangsters across is the same way most gangsters are put across in other films, with the way they are violent and the way death happens in all.
The women gangster in our piece firstly comes across as useless as she messes up the bank robbery, the social group and representations of gender comes across here as she as a women would traditionally have less power than a man in British Gangster films. This is because in the films I watched their was no leading women gangster role. On the other hand the fact that the two men characters trusted her to carry the money shows that she is trusted and reliable. Also shows that she is high as she has a main job to carry the money they had stolen from the bank. This shows that she is quite high in social status and the men having the trust in her shows she is high in the hierarchy.
The representation of women and men are shown in a way that they would fit into society I.E mise-en-scene of their clothing and the way in which they are driving just a normal van. The contrast of women playing a high part in gangster movie contrasts with all other gangster movies as the main characters are always men and women are represented as lower class.
In our piece social groups like Popular people, chavs, emos and other social groups are not shown. Instead we just have the social group of gangsters, and the representations of women and men.
The women gangster in our piece firstly comes across as useless as she messes up the bank robbery, the social group and representations of gender comes across here as she as a women would traditionally have less power than a man in British Gangster films. This is because in the films I watched their was no leading women gangster role. On the other hand the fact that the two men characters trusted her to carry the money shows that she is trusted and reliable. Also shows that she is high as she has a main job to carry the money they had stolen from the bank. This shows that she is quite high in social status and the men having the trust in her shows she is high in the hierarchy.
The representation of women and men are shown in a way that they would fit into society I.E mise-en-scene of their clothing and the way in which they are driving just a normal van. The contrast of women playing a high part in gangster movie contrasts with all other gangster movies as the main characters are always men and women are represented as lower class.
In our piece social groups like Popular people, chavs, emos and other social groups are not shown. Instead we just have the social group of gangsters, and the representations of women and men.
‘In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?’
Looking through the different types of British Gangster films we came across many different conventions. The first main one was the voice over that we came across in many of the films I watched, this would be ‘The Business’. The voice over in the films spoke about the life the gangsters were leading, or bad things in which has happened to them. We decided to use a voice over in our piece and ours was telling the audience about the loss in which the characters had experienced. This was the loss of everything they had. The conventions of crime in British Gangster films was high and came up in the opening sequences of all films I watched. If it was showing the killing of someone or showing a fight between two characters there was always conflict being shown. Our media product showed crime when one of the characters was shot in our piece. The conventions of language in British Gangster films was high rated and a lot of unnecessary swearing was being used. This is where we began to think of where swearing would have to be used effectively, as a group we believed that swearing had to be put in as ALL British Gangsters films we see had a lot of unnecessary language.
Music in our media product was hard to find, Music in British Gangster films we realised as a group was music from artists that are big, and not music in which is just music from a musical instrument. As a group we decided to challenge the music of a traditional British Gangster movie and used music that was from a musical instrument. As a group we decided this still worked pretty well and it fitted in all ok. We challenged the music so that our media product would be that little bit different from other British Gangster films.
The conventions of characters in British Gangsters were that ‘Men’ were the leading characters and women were either the wives or girlfriends. We challenged this form of convention and had a women who was playing a lead as a gangster. This changed the convention and made our groups media piece very different. Women in British Gangster films I see as lower in social class and there husbands were the ones who earned the money and they are represented in a way in which I see them as always with their friends and always spending the money. Changing the conventions of characters, as a group we was able to see how it would come across in a bigger film if a women was a main gangster. It was very different as we as a group always see women as nothing in British Gangster films . This is how knew that showing the end of our piece would work. We decided to show the bank scene which was the main reason the gangsters lost everything they had as they managed to mess it up. An introduction to the characters was shown so the audience would be able to know who was who. The end of our film was shown with the killing so the audience were wondering why did they kill him. This challenged the original conventions of the sequence in which the film is shown. Our main task sticks to the main conventions of our genre British gangster as the way in which the crime is represented the killings and the violence is all shown. On the other hand our piece does move away from the main conventions of British Gangster as in our media product we have a women as a main character which goes away from the main convention of British Gangster movies.
Music in our media product was hard to find, Music in British Gangster films we realised as a group was music from artists that are big, and not music in which is just music from a musical instrument. As a group we decided to challenge the music of a traditional British Gangster movie and used music that was from a musical instrument. As a group we decided this still worked pretty well and it fitted in all ok. We challenged the music so that our media product would be that little bit different from other British Gangster films.
The conventions of characters in British Gangsters were that ‘Men’ were the leading characters and women were either the wives or girlfriends. We challenged this form of convention and had a women who was playing a lead as a gangster. This changed the convention and made our groups media piece very different. Women in British Gangster films I see as lower in social class and there husbands were the ones who earned the money and they are represented in a way in which I see them as always with their friends and always spending the money. Changing the conventions of characters, as a group we was able to see how it would come across in a bigger film if a women was a main gangster. It was very different as we as a group always see women as nothing in British Gangster films . This is how knew that showing the end of our piece would work. We decided to show the bank scene which was the main reason the gangsters lost everything they had as they managed to mess it up. An introduction to the characters was shown so the audience would be able to know who was who. The end of our film was shown with the killing so the audience were wondering why did they kill him. This challenged the original conventions of the sequence in which the film is shown. Our main task sticks to the main conventions of our genre British gangster as the way in which the crime is represented the killings and the violence is all shown. On the other hand our piece does move away from the main conventions of British Gangster as in our media product we have a women as a main character which goes away from the main convention of British Gangster movies.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
