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

I believe that my media product uses conventions of  real media products as I feel that the editing and the titleing look fairly professional. I think that the editing is good because the transitions of the shots link in together really well and we have edited it so that it has continuity. I think that the titleing is to a good standard as we have used tools to make it link in with the diagetic qualities of the film for example we changed the angle of the text so that it would fit against the wall and along the floor.

Our media product challenges the stereotypical forms and conventions of a usual crime thriller as our film is set during the day and in a park, whearas in The Taking of Pelham 123 it is set in the dark and in a city. We had to challenge these conventions as the video quality during the dark would have been unwatchable. Also it would have been really inconvenient if we filmed in the city because it would take a rather long time to get there and if we needed to film more of our film then we would have been in a difficult situation. However I think that us challenging these conventions has worked as it makes the audience want to watch on to find out why that time and setting was chosen.

The things that our film has developed from the conventions of real media products is proberably some of the editing such as the zoom in on the eye as it is an unusual and unique way of showing the police with the blue and white flashing light. I think that this is a really good way to build tension as it is a subtle way to represent that they may get caught.

As you can see I think that we have captured and used the time of day effectively here, however we have challenged the setting and I think it has worked to our advantage.

(2) How does your media product represent social groups?

My media product represents social groups as teenagers are usually associated with crime. Also, the props and clothing we have chosen to use on our characters is key, the hoody being the stereotypical item of clothing for a teenager, giving groups of disruptive teenagers, the nickname "hoodies". Also, for the props that we have used, the briefcase and newspaper (The Times) connote power, authority and give the impression of middle/upper class.

As you can see we haven't ideally captured the representation of a disruptive teenager, however we incorperated the clothing related with this social group.

As our film is based on a bank robbery we thought that to challenge the conventions of a usual robbery we would have a teenager in it as well as an older more sophisticated male who dresses much smarter and this created a contrast. Steve is the person that gets betrayed by Gaz which is also different as you would think that the smarter dressed character would have more knowledge and would outsmart the teenager, however this is not the case.

Here Steve is wearing a shirt which makes him look more sophistecated and knowledgable.

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

Although our media product has a mainstream genre, I would classify it as a niche film as we worked from no budget and we had no experience in production of films etc. So I think that a company that distributed niche films would be much more suited to our product.

We did some research and found a company called Maljack productions who are based in america and distribute indinpendant and niche films the main film that they disribute being: Henry the portrait of a serial killer and Henry 2. These are displayed all over there website.

Although this might be suitable, maybe two distributers would be more effective as our genre is crime and thriller. This would also maybe gain us a larger audience as we would be covering more than just one genre through the distributer.

The typical distributers of our genre would be MGM, Warner bros., and other large distributers because our genre is mainstream.

(4) who would be the audience for your product?

As we had a lack of productional and filming knowledge, we decided that our film fell into the niche market. Due to this i feel that people that are interested in independent films would be our audience. However, i think that because our genre is mainstream that it would gain us a larger audience and more publicity.

Other things that may suggest the audience for my product would be that if we carried on the film there would be some sort of bad language and maybe some descriminatory acts using the The Taking of Pelham 123 as an example. Therefore, this means that it would only be suitable for somone aged 15 or over etc or maybe older as most crime films fit the criteria of an 18 rated film.

I would say that the age of our film would be from early 20's to people in their 50's maybe and I believe that the majority of our audience would be males as later on in the film, looking at stereotypical crime thrillers there will be violence and aggression etc. Also, I wouldnt think that it would be a typical family film. However it could maybe attract father and son.

(5) How did you attract/adress your audience?

As the opening of our film starts with the climax of the story, it intrigues the audience into watching on as they want to know how they got into that situation and the build up to the robbery. Before we started our film we handed out questionairres to see what our audience wanted to see in a crime thriller and we adapted our opening to cope with that.

Other things that we tried were asking people questions about what they would like along with the questionairres so that we would get a verbal answer along with written one.

I feel that another way we attracted our audience was through the unusual conventions we used such as that we filmed during the day and it was in a park unlike The Taking of Pelham 123 which was filmed in a city at night. I think that this intrigues the audience into watching on to find out why it we chose that setting and to see what is going to happen.

(6) What have you learned about new technologies from the process of constructing this project?

During the process of constructing this project I have learned many things about new technologies such as using new equipment, getting used to the programmes that we used, and learning about the shots.

When we first started the practical side of media studies I thought that we would just be using a handheld camera and just told to film. However, I was wrong and during this project I have learned that there is equipment that can help you to get the professional standard shots. For our AS task we used a tripod and a dolly to aid us in getting the shots we needed. We used the dolly to get smoother shots that were moving and the tripod for pretty much everything else.

I think that the tripod helped a lot more than the dolly as you can use the tripod on any surface and you need a smooth surface to use the dolly to its optimum potential. We had a problem with this as we were filming on a train station platform which isn't smooth, this gave the slight shake in the shot before the newspaper.

Whilst I was editing the film I was learning at the same time advancing the use of the tools on the programme such as colour correction which is fairly complex.

This is the colour correction tool I used to edit the colour of the newspaper and the police light when it zooms into the eye.

The camera and tripod which we found the most helpful form of equipment

The dolly that we found fairly useful

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

Looking back at our preliminary task I have found that the quality of work has improved a lot as I gained more knowledge of the program that we used (final cut express). There are many improvements and developments in the editing that we have done such as using filters, colour correction, slowing down and speeding up and using more complex tools instead of the basic ones giving a better result.

When I edited the actual title itself it took many layers and required me to use my common sense to create the effect as there wasn't a preset setting for what I wanted. I had to cut insert each letter in one at a time, shrink the letters and align them so that it looked professional. After this I had to add the effect I wanted individually on to each and I believe that it has worked quite well.

We had a slight problem as we filmed the newspaper at the end in different locations meaning that the lighting didn't match. to get around this issue I used the colour correction tool and changed it accordingly. It wasn't great, however it was better than how it started and I am pleased at how I used the editing to resurrect this problem.

On some of the clips we had to brighten or darken using filters because the shots were either too bright or too dark and I feel that we have done this quite effectively. Other edits we had to make were cutting out the sound which we didn't know how to do in the preliminary task.

On the other hand i believe the biggest improvements that we made was the cinematography. In our AS task we used more varied shots from close to far and the shots were far more steady. Also in our preliminary there were a few shots where the mise en scene wasn't very good for example the camera bag was in the shot and in our real task this doesn't happen.

As you can see next to the actor(Frankie Duck)'s left shoulder you can see the bags on the table.

The Betrayal

We have decided to name our film "The Betrayal" because we felt that it fit extremelly well with the ideas for our film. Also I feel that it sounds quite professional. I edited the title using a light ray effect to emphasise the lettering and I think that it is quite effective as the letters come in as we are walking so we have incorperated lettering into the actual footage. In this case in the position of the path which Gaz and Steve are walking down.

Some further research on genre:

Me and micheal found this research in michaels folder and i think that it is an important piece of genre research which we worked on together.

Here are some pictures of the locations we chose to film in:

As we had problems getting people to act in our film I had to step up and play Gaz the betrayor in our film. I dont think that it was the best idea. However, we had little time left to film as this was the 3rd time we re-filmed.

I feel that the location and time of day that we chose to film in wasn't ideal. I also think that we should have thought about it more and researched into it more thoroughly. However, because we couldn't get hold of any lighting equiptment we had to film in daytime. Although we had these problems i think that our film turned out pretty good and i am happy with the result.

Here are some photographs showing us filming our task:

Here is the equipment we used:

Camera & Tripod

Dolly

Finishing the editing

On the last wednesday before half term me and Michael finished editing our film. We added in many special effects such as the light ray effect when the camera zooms into my eye. Also we used colour correction to make the police lights. I feel that this was a really good idea to represent that Gaz sees the police in the film and that we executed it fairly well. Other edits we made were speeding up and slowing down our film according to what was happening to add tension.

The sounds that we used in our films were some of the diegetic sound, however we had to cut most of it out as it was a windy day and it muffled. We also used sound effects like the woosh when it zooms into the eye of Gaz. I also think that a really nice touch is when Gaz slaps the newspaper down and the music kicks in again.

I am really happy with the editing in our film especially the titleing.

Filming!!

yesterday, me and michael went home early to film our sequence. We spent 3 hours getting all the shots we needed. Also we have found some royalty free music that will go great with our film however we are not sure whether we will use it as we might find another track even better suited.
We used a dolly for some of the shots however it was quite difficult to use as the surface we were filming on wasn't that smooth.

Last week me and Michael finished filming we had some trouble with the camera and had to film again. when we booked a camera and went to get it there were no tripods left so we had to film freehand however now we have started to edit our footage and everything is going well so far.

Locations

After much debate we have decided that these two areas are best for our film, offering connontations of the key points we want to get across in the scenes that we intend to shoot here.

Actors & Props

Here are the two actors we have chosen to be part of our film. The other two pictures are of the main props we will use during the filming. The newspaper is particuarly important as it will tell the background story to the film, clearing up any confusion that the viewer may have had after seeing the initial sequences.

Crime Thriller Genre Questionnaire Answers

Chloe

1. Yes
2. Less often
3. An old detective like Morgan Freeman or Brad Pitt
4. Mysterious and creepy
5. A typical crime scene

Sophie

1. Yes
2. Less often
3. An old and experienced detective
4. Mad and mysterious
5. Dark, few characters and a sense of mystery

Josh

1. Yes
2. Monthly
3. A policeman who has personal interest in a case. He is quite intelligent and doesn't take long to work things out.
4. A criminal trying to smuggle or something of the like. Either a 'hard' man or someone who owns a nightclub.
5. An introduction to the main criminal and their life.

Seb

1. Yes
2. Once every two months
3. Strong and mysterious.
4. Evil and manic.
5. Dark. Sense of death and mystery.

Crime Thriller Genre Questionnaire

1. Have you ever watched a Crime Thriller film?
Yes/No

2. If yes, roughly how often do you watch a film from this genre?
Weekly/Monthly/Once every two months/Less often

3. How would you describe a modern Crime Thriller protagonist (hero)?

4. How would you describe a modern Crime Thriller antagonist (villain)?

5. How would you describe a modern Crime Thriller opening scene and setting?

'Hollywood' Narrative Structure

Storyboard

Our Script

Gaz and Steve are "friends" who go on a mission to rob a bank. Steve thinks that Gary is his friend and partner in crime however, Gary has other ideas....

Gaz - Alright mate we're good to go
(Pushes him slightly)
Steve - Okay
(Begins walking)
Gaz - (Firmly grabs his shoulder to stop Steve)
Pass me the case
Steve - Why?
Gaz - I've got to check something
Steve - Alright...
(Steve passes Gaz the case)
Gaz - Ill be out in a minute, wait for me out front.

3 years Later.....

Gaz - Shouts loudly
(throws newspaper down)

Bullitt

This is a link to the opening title sequence of Bullitt, a film of the same genre we intend to produce.

The Taking of Pelham - 123 credit analysis

00.00
00.14 - Columbia logo
00.20 - Columbia pictures and MGM pictures
00.27 - In association with relativity media
00.31 - A scott free/ escape artist production
00.39 - A film by Tony Scott
00.46 - Denzel Washington
00.50 - John Travolta
01.16 - The taking of Pelham 1,2,3
01.21 - Rail control center - midtown

The taking of Pelham 123 intro credits.

Our Decision

Me and Michael have decided that we will make the opening sequence of a Crime film, specifically a suspense thriller.

We intend to look at three examples of films from this sub-genre in order to further our knowledge of the conventions of this genre.