Evaluation Question 7- What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

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


This slideshare covers all the potential distribution companies that I could chose to distribute my media product. Overall I decided I would have Lionsgate distribute my media product as they specialize in distributing thriller films.

Evaulation Question 6 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge form conventions of real media products?

This is a link to the prezi encase it does not work - http://prezi.com/altspbq1motp/in-what-ways-does-your-media-product-use-develop-or-challen/

This Prezi shows how my meida product uses, develops and challenges form conventions of real media products. One of the key points is that the characters in our opening title sequence is that the mise en scene used in the sequence is a typical representation of certain social groups. For example, the assassain is wearing black clothes. this portrays death and danger, which is a common theme for dangerous people in society and criminal groups.

Another point that you can pick up on is that are sequence is set in a town. This is keeping within the conventions thriller films because  you would expect a action thriller such as ours, to be located in a typically standard area, as the criminals would want to located in a location that the police would not expect to find them.

You could also say that we have developed the conventions of thriller products in our opening title sequence by the selection of the name of our sequence 'Vindicate'. The word means to clear someone or something of accusations, blame or suspicion. This is developing on the conventions of thriller films because it creates enigma where you would not expect to find it, creating an unexpected sense of enigma for the audience.

Evaulation Question 5 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

This is my recreation of the Memento Opening title sequence, accompanied by a few screen shots of my preliminary task and my opening title sequence 'Vindicate'.

I have put these videos and images to highlight the ways in which I have used pieces of equipment to film each video. These include, an edit suite full of computers, with advanced editing software like Adobe After Effects and Premier Pro. I filmed the Memento recreation with a canon camcorder Legria and then I progressed onto using the 700D camera for the final opening sequence, which enabled me to change lenses, alter focus, change the aperture, ASA rating and exposure of my shots. This therefore made the final opening title sequence look a lot more advanced in the progression from preliminary task to memento exercise to final opening seuqence. I also used a 700D camera, tri-pods, and particular types of lighting, to film the media product. By becoming more competent in these areas, it is clear to see how the quality of each piece of work has improved over time. In the preliminary task, there was very few editing techniques used, and we were only just getting to know how to film a few editing techniques like match on action, and shot reverse shot. While in the opening title sequence, there is a range of editing techniques used such as a fade transition, parallel editing,  fast and slow paced cuts, along with a variety of camera shot types including low angle shots, reaction shots, medium shots, long shots and point of view shots.

I also incorporated sound into my opening title sequence. We did a sound workshop, in order to make sure that the sequence had a multi layered sound track, in order for it to feel more realistic and dramatic. We used a range of equipment to record sound, including microphones, and many more pieces of equipment in order to create particular sounds like foot steps and doors shutting. I used the school blogger website and the KLS Media  twitter apge to aid my progress towards the sequence.

I also used ICT software such as Photoshop to create a production company title, Skype to have a phone call with a BAFTA nominated editor, Michael Harrowes. The phone call with the editor was extremely use full as he told me that you should not be afraid to cut to cut a lot of film away from a film, as long as it created the correct atmosphere through its pace. We incorporated this in our opening title sequence by ensuring that we had a large quantity of fast paced cuts to create a feeling of urgency and anxiousness. I also conducted a larger amount of my time into research as development on online websites like Pinterest, Prezi and Youtube. I used Youtube and Pinterest to look at what other people had done for their opening title sequence, and to see where they had made mistakes, to avoid making them ourselves. Furthermore, I put the sequence  on Facebook to receive feedback on what people thought of my opening title sequence, and how they thought that I could improve my opening title sequence for the final piece.

Evaluation Question 4- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

The best way to navigate this website (Linoit), is to put your mouse on the post and scroll around. There is a map located in the bottom left corner of the post, which will tell you where you are on the post. From there you should be able to see where all the text boxes, videos and images are, and find out what they are displaying.

As you can see, the key elements that we have been  able to improve upon how we film certain shots, like a shot reverse shot, low shots, high shots, long shots, panning shots and match on action, from the preliminary task, to the final opening title sequence. This highlights how important it was to do the preliminary task because without it, we would of had great difficulty in learning where to position the camera in order to generate a particular shot, to create an effect on the audience.

Furthermore, we have also learnt how adding different editing transitions improves the quality of the shots. This is because, the preliminary task consisted of simple hard cuts, to switch from one shot to another, while in the final opening title sequence, we included some fade transitions. This made the final opening title sequence look better then the preliminary task as it looked more professionally edited which improved the quality of the film for the audience.

Evaluation Question 3 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Visit Harry's profile on Pinterest.

As you can see from the pinterest, our media product represents a variety of different social groups. We thought this was important because it would attract a larger audience to come an view my media product. This is because, the greater the variety of social groups your opening sequence represents, the more people from different social groups will come and see the film. In our media product, we have represented police officers, in two different ways. This will attract those people who work as high ranked police officers to come and watch the seqeunce, along with those just starting out in the police force.

Evaluation Question 2 - How did you attract/address your audience?

How did you attract/address your audience? - slideshow

My group also conducted an audience feedback session with people who would be ideal for our target audience. We did this through letting them watch the final opening title sequence, and then asking them a few questions. The questions we asked them were: What genre do you think the opening title sequence was and why? What was good about the opening title sequence? What was bad about the opening title sequence? and Would you go to the cinema and watch this film?

We felt that these were good questions to ask the audience, as they would allow the audience to tell us what they liked about the film and more importantly, what they felt needed improving. this is thereby another way in which we were able to address our audience, and edit our sequence towards what they wanted to see.

Evaluation Question 1 - What would be the audience for your media products?

We suggested that are audience would be 18-24 year olds because we kept the psychographic rule of thrillers by inluding police agents. this attracts an audience of this age because they enjoy seeing films with guns and police officers as they suggest that their is some kind of action about to take place, which is what young people want to see. however, we have made our opening title sequence even more appealling by adding a twist, with the inclusion of an assassin. This goes against what young people expect to see, thereby making them more attracted to watching the sequence, to see what will happen.

Our sequence is also located in a city area. This suits are audience of 16 -25 year olds, as many young people of this age, live in built up areas, due to the location in which they were brought up or due to the fact that their local school, college or university is located in a similar area. This enables them to relate to the sequence better, due to its location.

18-24 year olds have also been selected to be the target audience for my media product because of the enigma involved throughout the sequence. Enigma is a common convention of thriller films which attracts young people to watch the film, due to their imagination and curiosity. This thereby makes them the ideal audience to view my media product due to the enigma throughout my opening title sequence, which fuels their curiosity.

http://www.mediaknowall.com/gcse/keyconceptsgcse/keycon.php?pageID=audience

My group handed out a questionnaire to a variety of people after they viewed my groups opening title sequence, This aided us in determining our target audience.

Gender:

Age:

The Opening Title sequence

This is my groups opening title sequence.

Atmosphere is present throughout our opening title sequence through the use of sound. Throuhgout the sequence we have music playing that creates a sense of tension which is key sequence as it is a thriller, and tension is a convention of thriller films. We have also created tension through the pace of the cuts. The cuts in our title sequence are fast paced, which puts the audience into the frame of mind that the characters are desperately looking for something or some one, and feel this sense of urgency through the fast pace of the cuts.

Enigma is the biggest aspect of our title sequence. Enigma is created through the introduction of an assassin towards the end of the sequence. No one knows about him until the agent walks outside, which creates an enigma into the audiences mind of what is he doing there? why is he trying to kill the agents? and who is he working for? Another way that we have created enigma is by calling our title sequence 'Vindicate'. This is not a common  term among most people, thereby creating an enigma as the audience will be thinking, what does this word mean? and why is it the title of the film?

Our films genre is quite clearly a thriller. This is because of the characters involved in the film, two agents and an assassin. police agents or detectives are common conventions of thriller films, and by including them in our opening sequence, it ensures that our film is a thriller. Furthermore, our title sequence consists of a range of camera shots that are associated with thriller films, like over the point of view shots, and panning shots.

Our title sequence is located in the suburbs of a major city. This is a common convention of thriller films as they are usually set in these kind of locations in order appeal to a wide audience. So by us doing the same, our film follows the conventions of thriller films. We have also included a long shot within our opening title sequence, to give an overview to the audience of what the area is like.

The characters involved in our title sequence are two police agents. The lead character is responsible for his younger counterpart, but does allow his colleague to make suggestions as to what should be done (arguably resulting in his death at the end of the sequence). It is a common convention of thriller films to have a lead character accompanied by a 'side kick', such as in the James Bond films.  Furthermore, the lead agent enters the house first, to show that he is braver of the two agents, as he is willing to put his life at risk, before that of his colleague. This is demonstrated through a low shot of him as he enters the property. Another character in our opening title sequence is the assassin. He is represented as very stealthy, and not hesitant about killing the agent. This is common among thriller films as the antagonist is usually very powerful and unforgiving. This is represented through a low shot of him.

My Preliminary Task

Rough cut of our opening title sequence

This is the first rough cut of our opening title sequence. From this we have made many improvements, but without this rough cut, we would not of been able to structure our final opening title sequence as quickly as we did. This is because this draft version, acted as a base of which we could build on to come to our final opening title sequence.

One of the major improvements we made was through the lack of editing transitions. The rough cut consisted of simple cuts, with no fade transitions or dissolves. Therefore for the final opening title sequence we implemented a few editing fades to make the sequence look of a better quality.

We also reduced the length of some of the clips as they were quite long, and they made the audience loose a sense of atmosphere and tension, as they simply watched one of the characters looking through a draw for almost 10 seconds, which in a sequence that is only 2 minutes, that is a long time. Therefore we reduced the length of this scene to only 5 seconds, to keep the audience interested and not loose any atmosphere or tension.

We also added titles to our opening title sequence. The draft version did not include any titles, so thereby we added lots of them in order to for fill another convention of thriller opening title sequences. Without them, our sequence would not follow the conventions of thriller opening title sequences, an thereby be marked down by the examiner.

This is the final version of our opening title sequence, to demonstrate a clear comparisen of how the quality of our sequence has improved from the first draft to the final version.

My contribution to pre production and Construction of the opening title sequence

When planning the pre production of my groups opening title sequence, we decided to divide the work up into improve the overall quality of our pre production work. I was responsible for the treatment of our film. i was assigned this section of the pre production work as it was the one that required the most amount of information,  it described the entire story that our opening title sequence would be part of. As well as doing this, I also went to the effort of heading into Hemel Hempstead town centre, to film a possible location to film our opening title sequence, as the member who was assigned this role, was having difficulties finding a suitable location. In the end we decided not to use this location due to the fact that it would be illegal to point weaponry at the public without informing them. However it still remains as a useful comparison to the actual location that we used to film our opening title sequence.

In the opening title sequence its self, I acted as an assassin, providing an unexpected twist to the sequence. However, I was responsible for all of the camerawork. This meant that I was responsible for deciding on how a particular scene should be shot, and weather it should consist of high shots, low shots, close ups, long shots, and pans, along with many other types of shots. This meant that I had a crucial role in how certain characters are portrayed in a strong, powerful way or a weak, vulnerable way.

In the sequence, I am listed as: 'Starring',  'Filed By', and 'Executive Porducer'. I was chosen to be the executive producer because i was involved on the entire production of the sequence. This meant that I was in charge of how the overall production of the film from how the weapons looked, to how the characters should look in close ups.

I was also helped edit the title sequence. I definitely can not take all the credit for this as the orignal base sequence was made by Fateh Khaled, and a lot of the editing transitions like fades and dissolves were done by Jeremy Cannock. However, i did edit all the Foley and lip syncing into the title sequence.

Pre Production - Risk Assessment for my opening title sequence

This is my risk assessment, the purpose of the risk assessment is to outline all the possible potential risks and how to solve them if we do ever come across them. Within our risk assessment one of the main outlined risk was the fact that as our project consists of the use of weaponry, this was a huge concern especially to the neighbourhood because if we were spotted with weapons (even though they were model guns) the neighbours wouldn't be able to distinguish the difference between the two, furthermore this could have resulted into police matters; which is why we informed the neighbours in advance prior to the production day in the next couple of weeks. When creating the risk assessment, I thought of all possible hazardous risks and put them together with a solution, so when it comes to filming we make minimal mistakes and are extra precautious. - Fateh Khaled

Pre Production: Equipment

Pre-Production: Props

This is the preproduction on the equipment used for filming the opening title sequence, created by Jeremy Cannock.

 

My first priority was to secure weapons for the two police officers, I though that hand guns would be preferable and fortunately I owned two BB guns that we could use. However the hand guns where originally blue so I had to spray paint them black in order to make them look realistic and not ruin the illusion of the film. Once painted the guns looked good but I added a silver finish to a small section on the barrel where the firing chamber would be exposed when fired, making the guns as realistic as possible. 

 The other gun that I needed was a sniper rifle for the assassin to use when shooting, I was firstly unsure how I was going to get hold of this and if we would then be able to film it in a public space. Fortunately I persuaded a friend to let use his air rifle for the filming although he had to be present while we had it in the open and we changed the location to my house which is a more secluded to avoid any scares where people called the police about young adult brandishing weapons.

I also needed a shell casing from a round that had already been fired from a weapon but unfortunately I couldn't get hold of one so had to use an empty shotgun casing that I had at home.

We also needed a rifle for the assassin to use, fortunately I knew someone who owned and was licensed to use an air rifle and I managed to persuade him to let us use his rifle for filming but he had to be present during the time we had it in public view.

Pre Production - Storyboard for my opening title sequnece

Pre-Production: Storyboard

This will give our group a brief outline of the main scenes to take place during the Opening Title Sequence in the form of a storyboard created by Jacob Osman.

It outlines the order in which the opening sequence will made constructed and it also outlines

Pre Production - Costume For my opening title sequence

Preproduction: Costume



Jeremy Cannock was tasked with deciding and acquiring costumes which we would need in our opening title sequence. This the preproduction work on costume that he produced.


To do this I looked at other police themed film/tv shows to get inspiration, such as Hawaii 5-0, NCIS and Hot Fuzz. I found that I took the most inspiration from the costumes of Hawaii 5-0, as I thought that the shirt and tie with a protective vest over the top suited the 'detective' characters I had to create. However as our film would be set in England I decided to look at an British biased police film, I looked at the character on the left as his costumed fitted the profile extremely well but the fact that hot fuzz is a comedy and the fact that this character seems overloaded with weapons seem too over the top and adds a comical effect to the scene (something that I did not want to recreate in my own work).

 From this picture you can see the costumes that we used in our final OTS, I decided that the superior agent (right) should be the one with the gear like a hip holster and tactical vest was it reflects his increased experience. But mainly this was down to lack of resources and only being able to secure one vest for when we where shooting, however I added dialogue to the script where the superior agent asks his partner why he is not wearing his vest in order to avoid any confusion for the audience. The other agent wore a black suit showing that he was official and black is an excellent colour for urban camouflage, black also connotes death and provides a subtle foreshadow to the fate of his partner.

Tactical vest worn by superior agent (borrowed from a friend)

Over all I think that the costumes worked very well as they where realistic enough to make the film believable and not ruin the atmosphere and people where easily able to identify that they where some form of law enforcement by looking at their clothing.

Hip holster (bought from army surplus shop)

Hip holster worn by superior agent

                                             

Pre Production - Shot list for my opening title sequence

Shot List

Pre Production

Below is a shot list which I created as part of my groups pre-production. I had to outline all the possible shots that were going to be constructed on the filming day. As you can see there were 39 shots altogether, and I also outlined what shot it was itself (for example, saying whether it was a medium close up, or a long shot etc), I also stated how long each individual shot will last as well as given a brief explanation on what happens in each shot.

Created by Fateh Khaled

Pre Production - Location For My Opening Title Sequence

Pre Production - Location - Fateh Khaled from Fateh Khaled

We did have two possible locations for us to film the opening title sequence, one based in Hemel Hempstead town centre, and the other at Jeremy Cannocks's house. This allowed the group to make a good, clear comparison about which location was best to suit our specifications for our sequence, and also match our genre which was thriller. In the end, we decided to use Jeremy's house as it provided a realistic location for a thriller opening title sequence to be located, and we were also allowed to use guns the premises, whereas in Hemel Hempstaed town centre, we were not allowed to use guns due to legality reasons.

Pre Production - Treatment For My Opening Title Sequence

Loglines Into Treatment

'A police officer seeks revenge for the death of his partner, who was murdered by an infamous assassin'

At the start of the film, two agents are sent to investigate a local abandoned house, after being told that there is the possibility that a major criminal could be using it as a headquarters to hold their captured colleague. The captured agent is thought to of been captured because he was investigating the groups previous crimes, and was on a close lead to arresting the group. However the group logged on to the fact that he was doing this, and has kept him hostage for the last month previous to the 2 agents being sent to investigate the house. The criminal believed to being holding their colleague hostage is known to be part of a gang that has had many wrong doings such as money laundering, drug dealing and assassination attempts, which they have carried out in the past. The group have been previously convicted of ruthless crimes like these, but have managed to evade the police every time, and thereby naming themselves the ‘Get Away Group’. The group is composed of 4 members, each of which are highly trained and have crucial links to other major criminals located around the city. On the other hand the two agents are at a complete contrast with one another. The lead agent has spent many years in the job, and is highly advanced in knowing what to expect when, approaching dangerous scenarios such as these. His colleague on the other hand is in his first year, and has been assigned to be the apprentice of his far more experienced colleague.  

Just as the two agents arrive and reach the entrance to the building, they feel at risk that someone is watching them, little do they know, that someone is indeed watching them at a high vantage point at the top of scaffolding. The lead agent then tells his young counterpart that he should 'not do anything stupid' stay behind him at all times, regardless of the situation. Just as the lead agent enters the house, he barges in, announcing his presence in the house. A few moments later, they reach the house, and start to investigate around the acctual inside of the house. Later on, the two agents meet again in the kitchen and discuss where their colleague could be. The young counterpart fatally decides to suggest the his experienced leader that he 'should check outside'.

It is at this point in which the assassin on the scaffolding is able to get a sight on the lead officer, and after tracking the officer walking into a shed outside, the assassin begins to put his finger on the trigger and get a clearer line of sight on the agent. A few minutes later the assassin sees the agent discover a vital piece of evidence that he had hidden from everyone to see. In an act of controlled desperation, he decides to assassinate the officer at the exact moment that the officer looks up and sees him up in his vantage location.

After hearing the his boss fall to the floor with a bullet hole in his chest, he called for more units to arrive and take down the assassin from his unknown location. When the police officers arrive, they instantly receive information that the house is home to the assassin of the 'Get Away Group', and thereby proceed with caution. The police bring 8 units to the scene, vastly out numbering the mysterious assassin in an unknwown location to them. They proceed into the building from every entrance, surrounding the criminals. Each police officer is armed with a normal pistol and bullet proof vest in case things get out of hand. The assassin realizes what is happening long before they arrive, he tries to make a desperate lunge for freedom, by climbing down the scaffolding, and jumping to the ground. It came to no avail however, as when he landed on the ground, he attracted attention to himself and was followed by police helicopter all the way back to his gangs headquarters.

A few hours later, the police surround the headquarters, in a abandoned, run down room in the top floor of building in the heart of a local village a few miles away.  They then set up four snipers looking directly at the four gang members, and on demand, they shot all four members with bullets that knocked them out, allowing the agents to break in and arrest the criminals. This therefore gave the officers an easy task of simply carrying the criminals into the police van when they left their location, where they were taken to the station, where they were arrested, and put on trial, and found guilty, thereby facing life behind bars.

As for the family of the young agent who was assassinated, he was flown back home to his family in his home town, where the entire town turned up for the funeral, for what they described as a ‘heroic, agent, who put his life at risk to save everyone elses.’ The film then ends with a scene of everyone sowing their respects to the agent, and then cutting to a final scene of the criminal gang being put behind bars.