AS Media Formal Evaluation

Ben Livesey

Introduction

• My Project is the introduction to a film concerning gun crime which would fit into the genre of social realism/ thriller.

• Myself, Ben Briscoe and Carl Rawcliffe were the contributors of the filming, producing and all other aspects of this project.

• My Particular Contributions involved initial planning, where we brainstormed ideas for our project, storyboarding, where we drew up our decided plans for our project, filming, which I contributed heavily as I didn’t want a part in the sequence and editing.

Qn 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of

real media products?• The Genre our project falls into would be social realism/ thriller.• We used a lot of typical conventions whilst producing our project to give it a realistic and

professional feel, the typical conventions also help to express the genre of the piece.• The use of fast paced editing at the start of the piece helps to establish the mood of the

film as a fast paced thriller as well as easing the viewer into the oncoming scenes.• One key difference regarding the gun/ gangster crime side of the project is that instead of

being set in a big city like London, where there are problems with guns and knives, it is set in a sub-urban area, the establishing shots contribute to the portrayal of the setting as well as the locations used, for example the park helps to prove the type of area the project is set in, showing that gun and knife crime doesn’t only exist in big cities, but also smaller towns and suburbs.

• I think the change in setting worked well because the sequence doesn’t look out of place being filmed were it was, and there were no comments from the audience testing to suggest anyone else thought that it was.

• I think our project makes a good opening sequence because it excites the viewer establishes the setting and genre of the film well, and sets up lots of enigmas like why the boy has been shot, and who the man who shot him was.

Qn 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

• There are two characters in the sequence, Both of the which are youths, the boy being chased (Carl Rawcliffe) is the victim, so to make him look innocent as well as youthful, he is wearing brightly coloured clothes that a typical teenager would wear e.g. the waterproof jacket. Alternatively the the boy chasing him is the criminal (Ben Briscoe), and to purvey this, he is wearing dark clothes but still in the style of a teenager for example the hoody.

• The sequence starts with Ben Briscoe driving a car behind Carl, trying to run him over immediately establishing him as a criminal, and his menacing walk as Carl runs away from him also adds to the illusion that he is vicious and scary.

• Ben Briscoe’s character fits the stereotype of a criminal very well simply with the use of the hoody, which on a teen has connotations of crime and violence. This was the best way to represent this character so it is easily distinguishable that he is a criminal.

• Carl Rawcliffe’s character fits the stereotype of a typical fun teenager, which makes him look out of place in the chase sequence as he doesn’t look like the sort of person who would be involved with crime or violence. This usefully establishes his as the victim.

Ben Briscoe

Carl Rawcliffe

Qn 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

• To distribute our film, we would need a British production company, preferably one who specialised in similar types of films.

• Cipher films, for example, which is a British production company, who distributed both Kidulthood(2006) and Aulthood(2008) both of which are very similar to our film, covering British youth culture and gun crime.

• This company or one similar would be perfect to distribute our film, having done similar films in the past.

Qn 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

• I would say our project is very male orientated because it is produced by three males and our two minute clip contains no females.

• The age range of our target audience is 16-25 year olds, and it is aimed at British youths that live in both big cities and smaller towns to give an insight into life outside large cities.

• This is an excellent audience to target because it is a large audience, and this age range is the most notorious for disposable income because most people this age will still live with their parents but will have a job or EMA etc, meaning they don’t have bills to pay, so all the money they have can be spent.

Qn 5: How did you attract/ address your audience?

• Our sequence begins with an interruption in the equilibrium as opposed to an equilibrium, with the intention of revisiting the equilibrium later on in the film, and showing the events leading up to the chase scene and potential killing (our two minute clip.)

• The only sense of time given comes from the sunlight because the sequence is filmed outdoors, hinting that the time frame is sometime during the day.

• Because we begin the film with a disruption quite a few enigmas are set up, for example, what the equilibrium is - whether the victim is usually surrounded by crime and violence or whether he stumbled upon it. And also what he did to be pursued and shot, and who shot him. And whether or not he actually died.

Qn 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

• Technology was a very useful tool whilst researching for our film piece, we used youtube to find trailers for similar films to the idea we had, from this we obtained trailers for; BulletBoy, Kidulthood and Adulthood. We each analysed the trailers to take inspiration for typical conventions of a film of this genre.

• The limitations to a piece of footage when faced with the technology we had, are endless. The editing software we used is capable of manipulating footage with regard to colour, speed and transition, but to keep our film looking realistic, we kept manipulation to a minimal, doing only what we had to in order to make the footage look like an original piece of cinematography.

Qn 7: looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full

product?

• In comparison the Preliminary task only features a small amount of camera angles and the editing is a lot weaker. In comparison you can clearly see on our full product the ways in which we experimented with various camera angles, various editing techniques and the relationship between image and sound. The progression is also clear when analysing the transitions, which run more smoothly, with each shot gently easing into the next, as well as the composition of shots, of which we collected various close ups, long shots etc, the characters used, both of which were great examples of stereotypes within the genre, and the use of sound which is the foundation of the clip setting the pace of the sequence.

Storyboard Screen shotsThe sequence begins with an establishing shot, which zooms in, showing the surround suburbs and the nearby town in the distance.

Then, before we are given an entire shot of the car chasing Carl, we show close ups, firstly of the car, for example of the wheel and speed gauge.

Followed by a few close up shots of Carl’s feet running along, this quickly builds up the tension and eases the viewer into the scene to come showing the car chasing Carl.

This first long shot of Carl being chased throws the viewer right into the action and immediately sets up the enigma of why Carl is being chased and who is chasing him.

The next major scene shows the chase escalate as Carl runs into the park and the unknown driver jumps from his car to carry on the chase by foot.

The scene now close to the end, shows Carl, closely followed by Ben leading into a dead end.

We are then shown the two characters as they come face to face, and by leaving out dialogue, we make the clip even more mysterious.

we then cut to shots of birds sat in trees, which fly away as you hear gunshots, suggesting the criminal has shot the victim.

To give the impression that the victim has been shot, we show the view from his eyes, with the colours altered as though he isn’t seeing straight or losing control of his senses, the camera then falls to the floor showing the victim has fallen.

The clip then cuts to a blank screen with our film title ‘Fli Trap’ perfectly interesting the viewer to carry on watching to find out the answers to the enigmas set up during the introduction.