EVALUATION - 8. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progession from it to the full product?

Over the entire process I feel as if my skills have been challenged but improved. I feel that my final production demonstrates how my skills have progressed over the year and also my knowledge.

The music in the preliminary task was my biggest issue. We took a piece from Youtube (without copyright) but I personally felt that the music was a little TOO dramatic, it did fit the genre but not perfectly with the moving image itself, therefore when it came to the main task I felt that the music had to be improved.
I feel that in this area we progressed extremely well. We took the idea of creating our own music. My group and I spoke with the Sixth Form Music students, we described our film and gave them a few samples of what we wanted our soundtrack to be similar to or sound like.
Instead of using the same music throughout our piece we decided to have two, breaking down the tension and building it up again. The music students created us two fantastic pieces, a rock sound for the introduction and a slow piano to end with. I am so grateful because the music made a great improvement on our final product compared to our preliminary task.

The titles are another area in which I feel we improved on. Here is a screenshot from "The Deal", our preliminary task. 

As you can see the titles aren't orignial. They are done in the most simple font and size and filled with solid black. The appearance of the titles don't represent our chosen genre or any genre at all, therefore we decided to improve on our titles from the preliminary task and take those improvements into our final product. 

Above is a screenshot from "Loanshark". Our titles from Loanshark show how we have progressed and improved our knowledge on the genre. Doing research on Action/Thrillers gave us this idea, the use of a plain black background, that way light text can be seen clearly by the audience. We also changed our text to a metallic look, representing conventions found in an Action/Thriller, weapons, fast cars and technology. 

CAMERA SKILLS.

Above is a clip taken from "The Deal". In the clip it shows how we used zoom. The way in which we used this technique didn't work well as it made the moving image unclear. We didn't take this technique through to our final production, instead we used a long shot, jump cutting to a close up, that way it the image was clear and had a more dramatic effect due to the pace of the jump cut. 

Above is another clip, in the preliminary task there were many shots which didn't consist of the full image (heads were chopped out the frame) this is an example. In comparison, the shots in Loanshark are much better, they were well thought of and planned correctly. We also took a number of the same shots to make sure we had a number to choose from. I feel that our camera skills definitely progressed during the project.

The use of a tripod made a great improvement on our final piece. In this clip from "The Deal" you can see the moving image isn't steady. For the majority of our clips in "Loanshark" a tripod was used, and it was used for this same shot (walking down the stairs). Equipment had a major part in improving our film and allowed us to progress it. 

LOCATIONS

Due to the fact we had limited space and decided to film inside school some of our scenes in our preliminary task weren't very unrealistic. For example - You can tell that the two screenshots are filmed in a school.

I feel that the main area which we progressed in was locations and the use of mise-en-scene. 

Above are two screenshots taken from "Loanshark". This scene was actually filmed in the Sixth Form Common room. We adjusted the room and placed things such as the table and chairs, sink and kettle in sight to create a kithen scene. I feel that our knowledge of the subject has progressed and our creativity with mise-en-scene improved our entire production greatly and made it more realistic. Eventhough this scene worked extremely well, the comments from our feedback did state that more locations were needed so I think that next time we should take that into consideration. 

In conclusion I think that myself and my group have progressed greatly throughout the year, from our filming, editing and production skills to our overall media knowledge and I am very impressed and satisfied with how much we have improved. 

EVALUATION - 7. What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Evaluation - .6. Audience Feedback

For this response we interviewed 4 people who watched our video within our sixth form (who make it into our target audience category). They gave their response to 4 questions: what they enjoyed about our film, their views on our camera shots, editing choices and how we could improve. Taking into consideration the comments we were given I feel that "Loanshark" got a great response. All the people said that they enjoyed our film and the genre which we chose proved the statistics that the majority of people that watch Action/Thrillers are aged between 14-35. However if I were to carryout the task again I would take into consideration the improvement comments which they gave us, such as: improvement on the muffled dialogue, a wider range of locations could've been used, more realistic sound effects (gun shot) and lighting improvement. But overall I am completely satisfied with the outcome of our production from the feedback we got from our audience. 

Evaluation - 4&5. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? How will you attract/address your audience?

The internet is the media institution which would gain my product viewers. Websites such as Youtube, Blogger, Facebook and other online sites which allow an audience to view short films or video footage for free are the ones which are most likely to distribute my media product.  Here is an example of a student film which has used these distributions (link below). 

The Edge - AS Media Studies Opening Sequence
The producer "Rory Campbell" has his own youtube channel and goes by the name of "Toebex", his online identity. His youtube channel consists of homemade videos of his. On his channel he has uploaded his student film opening so that people can view it worldwide, to this date the video has 24,800 views.

Youtube Channel.

I also found that the producer has a twitter account.  https://twitter.com/Toebex 

In the bio a link to his Youtube channel is inserted. He has used Twitter to distribute his productions to a wider audience. His followers are able to see he has a Youtube channel of his own and can explore it from looking on Twitter.

Twitter Bio.

This producer used Youtube and Twitter to distribute and get his productions out to an audience worldwide. The reasons why in which we chose this way of distributing our film is that our productions are very similar. They are both student films, with a very low budget, a low amount of facilities and is done by an independent, low budget production company (Three Lions Productions). Our film wouldn't make it into cinema screenings as we do not have the funds to advertise it and to publish it to an audience in that way, therefore the internet was the best way to distribute our film to an audience worldwide.

The ways in which I would attract/address my audience would be the use of Facebook status updates, that way my friends and family would be aware of my film, then I could organise shared screenings for my peers at school, family and others who are interested (posting the video on Facebook itself is also another option). I would also announce it on my Twitter account. I would post links in my tweets which would direct my audience to where they can view my production themseleves.

Overall the use of the internet, Youtube, Blogger, Twitter, Facebook and other internet uses are the perfect way to distribute my production worldwide when having a low budget. The majority of people on the internet, using those four social networking sites are in their teen years and up. As the target audience for my film is 14-35 distributing my production online is distributing my film directly to my target audience. 

EVALUATION - 3. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The image above is my montage of images showing the contents of a manbag belonging to a typical target audience member, it includes: Gym shorts, Chewing gum, iPhone, Water, House keys, Wallet, Headphones, USB, Lip balm, Aftershave, iPod, Towel, Deodorant and a Gym vest.

My target audience member. "Justin Green is a student (aged 18) at Cambridge regional college currently in his last year studying sports fitness and is apart of the college football team. He aspires to one day have his own gym or become a fitness instructor. He has a great passion for sports and a great love for music and film. In his spare time he enjoys going to the gym, cinema, making and editing videos and taking a trip to HMV once in a while.  His favourite genres of music are R&B, hiphop and indie. Justin's favourite film genre is Action/Thriller and is a huge fan of James Bond, he is an owner of the complete collection up to date. He also enjoys the Fast and Furious saga and Die Hard. 

EVALUATION - 2. How does your media product represent particular socialgroups?

It was hard to find a perfect fit when casting for our main character, Owen Grey. Due to us having to film within school we needed someone who was also apart of our school, even better sixth form. With the students having different timetables to usand other commitments inside and outside of school it was difficult to find a suitable person, therefore Graham was the best person for the role. 

Graham: Screenshot taken from Loanshark.

Here are some images of actors taken from Action/Thrillers. We have; Roger Moore - James Bond, Tom Cruise - Mission Impossible and Channing Tatum - G.I Joe  . A stereotypical male lead in an action thriller would usually be a muscular, tall, dark and handsome man (alpha male if you like). As an Action/Thrillers target audience are males aged between 14-35 a muscular, tall, dark and handsome character would then attract the females, expanding on the audience.

Our film has a slight contrast compared to your typical Action/Thriller as we didn't want ours to be your typical Action/Thriller and predictable. Having our male lead that didn't have the stereotypical appearance allows the audience to be able to relate to the character. 

The only similarity these characters from James Bond, G.I Joe, Mission Impossible and Loanshark have is that they all have a goal and that is their mission for the entire film. Loansharks lead character consists of many differences, he is un-experienced and new to the lifestyle he is about to begin, he doesn't  have all the "fancy gear" and smart/techno suits. Owen Grey is your average family man that has to change to save the ones he loves and live up to the standards that other Action/Thriller characters have.  

Therefore my chosen character represents the average man (my target audience, aged 14-35) this is done purposly so that the audience can relate to the character, his lifestyle and his story, that way they don't just enjoy the action that takes place but they capture and take in the emotions too. 

EVALUATION - 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Here is a wordle I created showing a few of the conventions you are most likely to find when watching an Action/Thriller. 

Here are some examples of how my product uses some of these conventions compared to other film openings.

The image above is taken from the opening title sequence from Skyfall. This is a great example to show how Action/Thrillers include guns and weapons. My production also consists of this convention as it is a major part of mise-en-scene when it comes to action movies.The image below is taken from Loanshark, it is a shot which shows our use of props (the gun).

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Above is a screenshot taken from the opening of Quantum of Solace. A convention I found in many Action/Thrillers is that the titles are usually white (or another light colour) against a black blackground or moving image. The use of this gives a dark and tense atmosphere. We decided to use this convention however we developed it slighty and gave the text a metal look instead of a solid colour, representing technology, machinery and weapons. 

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This image shows how the convention of cars is used in an Action/Thriller taken from a James Bond film, Quantum of Solace. My production challenges this form as it does not contain any vehicles. Reasons for this is because Owen Grey is a average working man who cannot even afford to pay rent. As we wanted a realistic storyline and character, having fast cars wouldn't have worked as in real life Owen Grey's character wouldn't even own a "flash" car. 

Above: A Wide shot of Owen Greys house taken from Loanshark - No car/vehicle in sight. 

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Death is a convention found in Action/Thrillers. This screenshot above doesn't physcially show death but represents it in a creative way in the opening of Skyfall (Moving image of a grave yard).

Above are two screenshots taken from Loanshark. We decided to challenge the convention of death in a creative way just like Skyfall. We challeneged it by not physcially showing the death. The moving images consists of a shot with Owen Grey aiming the gun at his victims. As you hear the gunshot a jump cut is used to show a flashback shot from Owens life, of him and his wife. This represents Owens memory and the reasons why he kills the loansharks. 

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Another convention used in Action/Thriller films is the use of mystery. 

To the left is an image taken from the Skyfall opening title sequence. The image portrays mystery as only half the face is shown, making the audience question and wonder about this character and his mission. Our opening sequence does contain mystery but not within the character. We wanted our film to be a realistic Action/Thriller as you don't get many therefore we challeneged the convention. Owen Grey (the main character, shown in the image to the right) is your ordinary man therefore he doesn't have the mysterious trait of an action/thriller hero. 

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 The image above represents our character, Owen is realistic. The obvious conventions for a character in an Action/Thriller would to be either in a suit of some kind, whether it be a casual suit (James Bond), or a suit to portray a certain character (Thor - hammer, cape etc), which is shown in the images below. The reason for this is the same for many, we wanted our film to not be your typical Action/Thriller but to create a piece of realism which the target audience can relate to.