Question 7

This is an example of an over the shoulder shot that we used in our preliminary task. As you can see, the quality of the shot isn't great and the camera is out of focus creating a blurred image. Furthermore, the shot is supposed to give the viewer a little bit of a perspective from the character, however from this shot you can see very little of what is ahead of him.



On the other hand, this is a shot that we have taken from our film opening which as you can see, is a much higher quality image. For this piece we used a different camera to ensure that the quality of our film would be reflected through the type of shots that we chose to include. This shot is from a higher angle looking actually over the characters shoulder unlike in the preliminary task shot. This shot clearly gives the audience more of a point of view shot of the character. For the few seconds that the shot lasts for the camera remains still and in focus all of the time to produce a high quality image once it is edited.

In our preliminary task we included a match on action which is an editing technique to show the character opening the door and then entering into the room from two different angles. In this film, the match on a action takes place at 0:15 into the film and it is made apparent that the character is entering the room. The match on action is slightly out of sync due to the fact that the door was opened wider when the shot is outside of the room compare to when the camera is located inside of the room. More importantly, the match on action doesn't follow the 180 degree rule which can confuse the audience easily.

At 0:35 in the preliminary task we show I high angle shot of the character walking up the stairs however, the camerawork isn't very professional due to the shaky hand trying to film the shot. This creates a slightly blurred image along with the character walking too fast which means that the camera is out of focus which can clearly be seen within the shot. Because the camera isn't still, we are unable to keep the characters feet in the shot at all times which is the main object in the scene at the present time.

We also used a match on action at 1:00 in our main task. This attempt was much more successful as you can see that the transfer between cameras is very accurate and almost perfectly timed compare to the preliminary task. Moreover, the lighting in this film makes the match on action clearer to the audience as before the quality wasn't as good. Finally, in this task we followed the 180 degree rule more accurately in terms of not confusing our audience as to where objects are located through the use of camerawork.

A similar high angle shot was used on the character walking up the stairs at 0:45 in our main task. The framing of the high angle shot used in our main task is much more professional than the one in our preliminary task as you can see the characters feet throughout, which is the main object in the scene. To prevent the camera from going out of focus or producing a poor quality image, we used a tri pod which allowed us to get the ideal angle that we would want and hold it there in a steady position.

The planning stage was where we prepared for our film opening. This meant it was the steps leading up to our main task. Some of the steps we took were shot list, storyboards, timelines and analysis'. This research and planning assisted us when it came to producing our own film opening because it gave us guidance and made the process more efficient. It helped us to be more efficient as all the work was like a step by step guide because it showed us the basic structure of our film opening.

The research into the genre gave us further information as to what we needed to include in our opening. We chose to do an action and therefore by looking into the generic conventions we were able to figure out what to include within our own opening. More over we could find out when and where to use shots and how they promote dominance or someone who is weak. It also helped us to identify our target audience.

Overall from filming a preliminary task and then filming an actual film opening I feel as though our confidence in using the equipment has grown. When filming the preliminary task, you can see that the shots are shaky and in parts blurry compared to our actual opening which is very high quality and there is not much camera wobbling throughout. Using the movement on the tripod was not something we did in the preliminary task but because the confidence has grown using the tripod we managed to get some good pans and tracking shots using the tripod to steady the camera and get a smooth movement. These shots we put in our opening look good and fit In well. Our final film opening we used a HD camera which helped to improve the quality from the previous camcorder which you can tell had been filmed poorly. Finally, I think our biggest improvement between tasks was using the editing software. In the first film our sound and effects used are out of place and do not fit that well but our actual opening shows a significantly better use of sound by using a voiceover and having non-diegetic music which helps to create an atmosphere. Our editing also shows better changes, cuts and transitions. This helps to add to the realism of the film.

Looking back at our final film opening I feel it has been successful. The purpose of a film opening is to show what the film is about and to gain the audiences interest so that they are immediately hooked with the film. The film opening is also there to clearly display the genre of the film and introduce the characters. I believe we have followed these conventions when creating our opening which helps to make is a success. In order to show the genre, we put a gun as a prop in which is a typical convention of an action film and furthermore this helps to attract the viewer because it is an interesting prop so hooks them in. We introduced 2 characters well which might connote the convention of a hero and villain.

Moreover, our film opening is just over the 2-minute mark but no more than 2 and half which follows the guidelines given. I feel we could have improved it if we had kept it tight on the two-minute mark instead of going over it. Our narrative is not clear but we have introduced it and it is assisted by the voiceover so the audience have a rough idea of what is going on. Early on we also manage to establish the scene and location the actors are at. One is at school and the other is clearly in an office.

Our opening credits are seen to be stereotypical of a mainstream film because they have the main actors and main people from production and then the title. We have chosen for the title to come last because it most action films it is the last thing to appear, for example fast and furious 6. Usually in an opening a key event will occur that could help the storyline. In our case we see a government agent involved with some drugs he clearly shouldn’t be taking, this shapes the storyline. Finally, we also use relevant shots like an establishing shot to set the scene. I feel for these reasons that we have created a successful film opening and we are happy with the end product.

Rhys Williams & Sam du Berry

Question 6

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

Question 5

Question 5 from rhys180899

Question 4

Question 4 from rhys180899

Question 3

Evaluation question 3

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

Rhys Williams & Sam du Berry

We have chosen to be a mainstream institution due to having a popular genre as it appeals to a larger audience than most other genres and our film would be produced on a high budget like most action films. We would cast big name actors relevant to our genre for example, William Fichtner who appears in lots of crime related films.

Spectre is another mainstream action film that stars big names such as Daniel Craig and is produced on a huge budget of $300 million.

As we anticipate our film to be a major action film we would have it distributed by one of the big six companies. Our film is not the type of film to be distributed by Disney because it is not suitable for their type of audience. Universal would be our preferred one because they have done a lot of films like this and are one of the best known in the business for having big films. This means they have big budgets and would be capable of distributing a killer action film like ours.

Our film targets a mass audience meaning that, we are producing our film for a large audience of a wide variety. A distributor is a person or organisation who represents a film and markets it all around the world in the attempt of selling it to television etc. Walt Disney, Warner Bros, Universal pictures and 20^th Century Fox are all examples of mainstream film distributors, some of these are known as being a part of the big six. We would choose to use Universal to distribute our film as they are known for distributing successful mainstream films similar to ours such as Furious 7 and Jurassic World.

Our film would be distributed and released in a staggered way. It would be in the cinemas first because it is a mainstream film from the action genre. After appearing in the cinemas it would be put out across DVD and Blu-ray because people who have seen it might then want to watch it again or show it to their friends. Later in the release we would put it across platforms such as iTunes or google play so that people can watch it on the go. Finally we would sell the rights to Netflix and amazon prime for them to show it. The reasons we have done this process is because it is the way of producing most money. If it was released on all platform’s at once then less money would be made in cinemas. This is more of a niche film technique as opposed to a mainstream film.

Question 2

Question 2- How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product represents gender in a stereotypical way as male characters are seen as dominant and have more screen time. Furthermore, no females are casted in the film opening which connotes they have less importance in our film. The main character is seen as the most powerful and we can see this through the use of Mise-en-Scene, the main character is seen to be in possession of a gun which suggests he is a threat and has power over other characters. Through the use of camera work we also made the main character seem more predominant. Low angle camera shots were mainly used on this character to make him look bigger to the audience.

Moreover, age is also represented in a stereotypical way due to the older characters in the opening scene being shown as more important. On the student character, multiple high angle shots are used to make him appear smaller to the audience which connotes innocence. The characters clothing suggest that he is still in school as he is wearing a school uniform whereas the main character in a suit shows that he is superior and more sophisticated. In terms of screen prevalence, the main character has more authority over the student which displays a stereotypical example of age.

Ethnicity doesn’t take much effect in our piece because only white males are casted however they are still seen as powerful and the ethnic majority.

Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real

 media products?

Our title is positioned in the bottom left of the screen on a black background. The reason we have chosen to have this is that based on similar films from the action genre they do this. Fast and furious 6 have their title at the end of the opening and have a black screen in which in bold they have written the title; this is in the centre of the screen. Our title is also a bold font which is why it is similar to action openings.

The sound used within our opening scene helps to suggest that our genre is action however, the main give away is the generic conventions that can be seen on the desk when the villain is in the office. In this frame, you can see that there are drugs and a gun on the table which are two generic conventions of action as it connotes violence and illegal activity. The character is wearing a dark suit which conveys a dark personality which helps the audience to identify that he is the villain in our film. Like most action films for example, Spectre, ours features these types of generic conventions as these are what an audience would expect to see within an action film. Generic conventions help to set up the viewers expectations of the film and these expectations need to be met, that Is why we have included common conventions.


This is the main establishing shot that features in our film as it helps the audience to identify the type of location that the scene is being set in, with a zoomed out image containing the majority of the room.

There are two characters that feature in our film opening, these consist of  hero and a villain. The villain is the first character that is seen in our film opening and this character is presented using  a tint that created a darner effect on the scenes that he features in to reflect on his character. On the other hand, we left the original footage of the hero character as it was originally as it creates a more innocent feel to the scene and also helps to indicate to the audience that this is the good character and that they should trust him.

We have chosen to use this font because it is a bold heading. Most action films tend to have titles like this as they stand out. Furthermore it is clear. Our titles are all positioned in different places but on the bottom of the screen because therefore it does not intervene with any content on screen.

This shot features in the opening and it helps to establish the story and what is happening. The shot shows a government agent looking through some files while other props are seen on screen like the drugs and the gun. This shows he might not be any normal government agent. The shot also features him rushing in order to clear the drugs out of the way as someone knocks on the door. This signifies the fact he is doing something wrong

Rough Cut 1

What worked well:
*Good logo at the start - Wolfpack
* Variety of camera angles
*Nice font for the titles

Even Better If:
* It needs sound - non diegetic to start and then maybe a voiceover of Nathan saying "ahh yes hello...when he puts his hand out."
*The narrative needs to be clearer
*You need a bigger defintion between Nathan's scene and Owen's scene - we need to see they are two different people
*Some of your shots are held for too long - please cut them down a smidge
*Who is Owen? Make this clearer
*Remember the correct film title order! Check your timelines!

Sam du Berry

Title Timelines (Action)

Fast and Furious 6 is a typical action film which is very popular with a lot of the target audience our film is aimed at. The title sequence shows the production company at the start which is universal pictures, it then goes on to name another 2 producers who had a part in the film. This is very typical of action films to credit the production companies first and then later go onto the big name actors. These production companies have approximately 5/6 seconds on screen each before the actors name come up. Each actor is put into an order of what you could describe as being the most famous ones first and so on. Each actor has a maximum of 2  seconds on the screen because a big film like this has a lot of names to cover in a short opening. This makes them seem less important than the production company who take more credit for the piece. After a while 2 actors names appear underneath each other on each screen as a way of putting the less important ones in. All of the actors names are complete by about 1.10 which is over half way through the opening credits. After the names in the action genre then come the individuals in production who took part in creating the film for example the music composer etc. In this specific action film they have around 3 seconds on screen but the majority of the names come in twos or threes as they are valued less than big name actors. Finally the writer of the film is the penultimate name and has longer on screen, this shows he was very important in the production and so gets more credit in the film. The last name to appear is the director of the film which gets a similar amount of time to the writer because they are the person that made the film happen and are most important when filming it. The title comes last which happens very often in action films as it is the most important part of the film and the last thing the audience want in their head before they actually watch the film. Although it is last on screen it last no longer than 4/5 seconds showing that because it is on a black background they do not want to hold the shot for too long as it can bore the audience.

Rhys Williams

Final Costume Decisions

The final costume decision for the second character in our film is to be a simple school uniform. Our character is supposed to represent a school student who is into law and politics. The costume on the left is perfect for this because it shows someone who looks like a law student with the costumer making it obvious he is part of a school or education system.
This helps me when filming my film because we now know what costumes to use on the days of filming.

This is the costume that the main character in the film will wear on the day of filming. This makes him look like a sophisticated and more of a mature adult. The character will wear this as he is a government agent. wearing a suit makes the character look official and important. This is the final costume decision which is very simple but it gets the clear message across that this character  has stature.







Rhys Williams

Institutional Logo Research

At the start of any film an institutional logo will appear at the start, this is the company who produced the film. These can be mainstream or independent logos which have significant differences. generally, the main difference is that mainstream ones are usually moving animated logos whereas independent tend to be still pictures.

Mainstream


20th Century Fox is a mainstream institution that is one of the big six. This institutional logo is an example of a mainstream logo that is moving. The 20th Century Fox logo has been improved over the years from when it first cam around in 1914 and now it is one of the biggest institutions. In 1914 the 20th Century Fox logo was in lack and white and was virtually a still image with little movement. It wasn't until quite recently that the logo started having a lot of movement/ animation. The most recent logo also features high quality colour and animation.




Independent

Film 4 is an example of an independent logo for the institution who cater their film towards niche film categories. Independent logos are still images mainly because they are simple and easier to budget for. They haven't shown much progression over the time they have been used but they used to black and white and then they were changed to colour more recently when it became available.








Sam du Berry and Rhys Williams

Final Props Decisions

Our final props are similar to the ones we had previously however there are some new additions in order to make the scene and opening more relevant to the storyline and genre.




This prop in our opening will be a gun/pistol that we put on the desk near the drugs. This helps to maintain the image of a bad character who might also be important in order to obtain a weapon like this. The gun will not be used within the opening scene, the main character will only pull it out of his pocket and place it on the desk.


One of the props we will use will be flour. This will be used in the film in order to represent drugs. This sets the atmosphere that the main character who is a government agent will be bad because there are drugs on his desk. There will only be a small amount as we do not want it to be over kill where it would look unrealistic. This prop will be placed on the desk with the bag open so it seems it has been used recently there will also be a shot of the main character taking the drugs.

This conference table shows an important meeting could take place at this table therefore meaning someone important occupies the office. This is where the majority of the opening scene will take place. The main character will be sitting around a table similar to this where he will be reviewing some cases as well as taking the drugs.

These files will be cases on some criminals that the main character will be investigating. This will also inform the audience on his line of work and give them an idea of his background. The folders will be left open on the desk to show that the main character is reviewing the cases. The main characters job may also require a gun as he is an agent which makes the prop even more relevant in the opening scene.

The credit card is pulled out of the main characters pocket and used to chop the drugs that will be on the desk.







 


 The books will not be used by our main character (villain) instead, the hero will be reading these as he is studying. The books will be related to law and politics therefore, he will be studying the different roles of government people including our main character.








A computer will also be used by the hero character in order to continue his research into politics and the government agent (main character) when he stumbles across a picture involving our main character and some drug organisation. This scene features at the end of the opening scene.

 

Sam du Berry & Rhys Williams

Location Scouting

The first room we went to have a look at was this office which belonged to the head teacher of a school. We felt the advantage of this office was that it was relatively big and had a large conference type table. There was also not much on the walls so it was quite clear. The disadvantages of this location were that the things around the room were very unsuitable props which would not fit in our storyline.

The second office we tried we immediately knew would not work because there was too much irrelevant items spread across the room but there was also no big tables in the room. There were no advantages to using this location in our film opening.

The next room we tried was very simple and small and looked quite like an office our type of character would have. The advantages were the props fit in with our storyline with the phone and folders but also lockers/safe to the side makes it look like official things could be locked in there. The disadvantage of using this room would be the fact there wasn't a big table or enough desk space to really be someone who fits in our storyline. They would need a bigger table or desk in order to look more important.

This room was much like the last room in the fact it was a small and simple desk. The advantage of this room is that it was fairly clear and there was a computer so it looked quite good however the same disadvantages as the last room meant it was too small and there wasn't a big enough desk or conference table to do it at.







Rhys Williams And Sam du Berry

Casting / Audition Intentions

For our auditions in order to acquire the right actors we will hold simple visual auditions. Considering our film opening feature little to none dialogue, it would be pointless to base the character around how they speak or how good they are at acting. We felt it was more important to judge it based upon how they look and if they were fir for the role. These reasons meant we auditioned 3 people for each role who fit the criteria. Reasons for choosing our actors are that the first character needs to be tall and slim. This would allow us to have the look of a formal man. All this character would have to do was be able to move adequately, this meant for the auditions we trialled them for the roles they would play in the film. Including sitting down, walking and opening doors to see how natural their movement was.

The second character required no more than to look like a school student who was doing their day to day studies. Reasons for choosing a person like this is for them to be able to mix in as someone from that age. The best way to do it was to use an actor who was in education because it would fit the plot.

Rhys Williams

Audience Questionnaire Analysis

Question 1) Would you rather watch an action film based on a true story or a fictional one?

The answers for this one were a mix but most of our target audience said they would prefer a fictional storyline. Although a true story can be interesting the audience felt that more out of the ordinary and exciting things in action films will happen if they are not true. The fact that it was a true story meant they thought it could be a block for the amount of creativity they see in a film. This answer helped as decide the fiction of the film and weather it should be based on real events or not. We have chosen ours to be a fiction film due to these results.

Question 2) What age rating do you watch the most?

The majority of people we asked felt like the perfect age rating for an action film was a 15. This was because at a 15 the content would not be too explicit and gory however there would still be a certain element of action that they felt a 12 rated film could not offer. This is the reason that this was chosen as an ideal age for our film. Some people did say they would prefer an 18 but the majority did not. This would help to pick our rating for our film because it meant that a 12 rated film was out of the question really which was fine because they were not in our target market but it left a decision between a 15 and 18. We chose 15 because we thought that having an 18 would remove a large chunk of our target market. 

Question 3) Who are your favourite actors that usually feature in the genre action?

This question was quite useful because it would help us to gauge what type of actor would need to star in our film opening. The majority of people said different actors and at first this made the question seem irrelevant however when we looked deeper we found a certain amount of similarities between each of these actors. The majority of people picked an actor who already casts in an existing action film (usually a spy film). The types of people that were mentioned were, Tom Cruise and Daniel Craig. Although they are different people they have similarities like their age, height, weight and type of film they star in. This would help us because it would mean we would need someone of a similar body type to them.

Question 4) What is your favourite genre?

This question was just to find out the proportion of the public that do in fact favour the action genre. Research that had already been undertaken suggested action was in the top three for most watched genres and although this is good, we put this question in so we could find out for ourselves if it is popular with people like us. Our results came out to similar as existing research. Action is one of the most known genres and most people say that and comedy were the two favourites. This helps us to finalise our genre and decide whether we needed to mix two genres or not.

Question 5) What generic conventions do you expect from a typical action movie?

Most people said the obvious things for this question in that they usually think guns are a key thing in an action movie because it displays the intent for action in a film. Other than that the usual props were mentioned and sound. This is important because these are the kinds of things we need to include in our opening or whole film.

Question 6) Do you prefer mainstream or independent film?

This one was an easy decision to make because everyone we asked preferred mainstream films because they have more money people thought they could do more impressive things. They also said they were not really into the niche films which are more focused to a specific audience. This meant because we were doing an action it would be an obvious choice to pick mainstream however we would not have the resources most mainstream companies have.

Question 7)  How often do you watch action films?  

There was a real variety for this question with a lot of people watching it as much as 3 times a month but others would rarely get time to watch it and so were more like once every couple of months. This question does not really help us in our production of an action films but it gives us an idea of how often people watch films like ours.

Question 8) Do you think sub genres go well in action films?

The answer to this question was mainly yes however some people said that if they were going to watch an action film then that is purely what they want to see as opposed to having elements of comedy in it. The people that said yes also said most sub genres go well with action like adventure, comedy and romance all fit in to action storyline. This helped in the planning of the film because even though we have decided not to incorporate another genre we went through a stage of seeing how well it would fit in our film. 

Rhys Williams

Moodboard of the look of our audience memebers

This picture represents a large portion of our target audience due to the fact that a target audience are within the cinema going age. 16- 24 years old is the cinema going age and our film is mainly targeted towards teenagers and young adults therefore, this image shows that cinema goers are likely to be included in our target audience.










The image shows a male dominated audience as our film genre (Action) is usually associated with or targeted towards males. Generic conventions of Action are usually appreciated more by males however, this genre can be enjoyed by both genders.








This image shows a teenage dominated audience within the social cinema going age category. This is the most common age to go to the cinema which is why these young adults are within our target audience.







This picture shows the expression on our audiences face as they watch our film opening. It portrays a shocked face as generic conventions of action show a lot of exciting things, like violence and fights. This person is also in our target audience as he is a male over the age of 18.







Sam du Berry & Rhys Williams